tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758Fri, 27 Feb 2015 05:24:55 +0000pizzaramblingsCharcutepaloozabaconrandomrestaurantscuringsausagewood fired ovenThanksgivingrantsalamisteersProduct ReviewTrader Joe'sgrillingkitchen counter projectpancettashoppingsuper marketsTournament of PizzachickenkidsModernist at HomeRoad FoodduckTravelrib and pierogi daysopressatatechniquewhiningCharcutepalooza-2011boozecuring chambercurlingfiredomehot dogspressure cookerthe internet2012 GoalsBBQIndispensable ToolTastingsbrinebutcherycheesecakefarmer's marketpierogitoxic friendsvanillaHalloweenHouseKickstarterKuhn's Chili DogsLucky Peachbeercold smokingcompare&contrastlosing weightmodernistratiosauerkrautsrirachiBacon ChallengeBlack Stone OvenCSAGrandma CookiesHarvard Online CourseReubenbakingeggsice creamkielbasaknivespitschoolseafoodsous videspiceJon In AlbanyI have no idea what I'm doing. Give me some time to figure it out.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)Blogger392125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-8776361865515490407Thu, 05 Feb 2015 03:54:00 +00002015-02-04T22:54:01.505-05:00pizzaMy First Delivery<div class="MsoNormal">This happened a little while ago (January 25<sup>th</sup> if you are keeping score at home), and when I think about it, I still laugh. Like right now.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/waitwhat-did-i-just-say.html" target="_blank">I bought some pizza boxes from Restaurant Depot</a>. The wind blew open the outdoor cabinet where I was storing them. I didn’t want anything to get at the boxes, so I moved them into the basement. Lately, I’ve been making eight 13.5 inch pizzas when I fire up that little pizza oven. We maybe eat a little less than three. I keep a lot of leftover slices in the storage containers I got for my birthday and we slowly pick at the slices during the week. It’s a lot of pizza…not that it’s bad thing.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve also been flip-flopping between dough formulations and recently made a decision to stick with one and try to dial it in to a repeatable, good pizza. Unfortunately, that requires some self restraint and I really don’t have any. When dialing in the recipe, it’s best to only change one thing at a time, analyze the impact of that change, accept or reject the change and then continue with additional adjustments.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Lacking that level of self restraint, I changed two things in my last go around. I upped the salt and moved to <span class="GramE">a 2</span>-day ferment by dropping some of the yeast. Madness, I know. As it turns out, I got lucky and it looks like both changes improved the dough. I was making some pretty good pizza that Sunday night. I was filling up, my wife and kids were pretty much done and I had already cooked 6 pizzas with leftover slices all over the kitchen. Two dough balls left. Since making pizza is a lot of fun, I was making these two pies.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Having moved the pizza boxes earlier in the day, they were fresh in my mind. I came up with the idea of delivery. If that didn’t pan out, I have them boxed and bring them to work on Monday. So at precisely 6:22, I texted Albany Jane:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“Any chance you are home…and want some pizza?”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I proceeded to cook a sausage pizza, slid it into a box and giggled. I closed the box and headed out to make the last pizza of the night, a pepperoni. This particular pepperoni was sliced on the thin side and was kind of drying out in earlier pizzas. So I sauced the dough, placed the pepperoni and then topped it with the rest of the cheese I had grated. Probably a bit too much cheese. As I was pulling it from the oven, I got Albany Jane’s reply: “Yes and yes”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I texted back, “See you in a few,” sliced the pizzas and headed out the door, laughing at the idea of delivering pizza. I giggled like a little kid the entire short ride over to her house. I knocked on the door and made my first delivery. Albany Jane took a few pictures to commemorate the event. Basically <span class="GramE">me</span> looking like a slob, wearing a crummy green jacket covered in flour and grinning holding two pizza boxes. She also took a shot of the pizzas.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fPKiUl84tSs/VNLoRU3ypxI/AAAAAAAAD50/HYLhO3an-A4/s1600/pepperoni.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fPKiUl84tSs/VNLoRU3ypxI/AAAAAAAAD50/HYLhO3an-A4/s1600/pepperoni.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I had to head out because it was a Sunday night, kid showers, bed time approaching and clean up my mess - all that fun Sunday evening stuff. I got home just after 7:00. Forty minutes, from spur of the moment idea to done. And no joke, it still makes me smile. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Back in the fall, I was all set to make too much pizza and we invited a family we know over for dinner. It was a really fun night. I ran into mom and the kids leaving the afterschool program the Monday following my first delivery. According to her mother, my pizza has stuck with my daughter’s friend. Every pizza since has been, “Good, but not as good as Casey’s <span class="GramE">dad’s</span>.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I promised her the next delivery.</div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/my-first-delivery.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-1717660817860370912Fri, 16 Jan 2015 03:40:00 +00002015-01-18T16:20:51.146-05:00ramblingsPeople Suck (but maybe not everyone - updated)I follow a bunch of different pizza sites (apparently I have obsessive compulsive pizza disorder) and this was in the pizza news today.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2015/01/14/westport-car-dealership-messes-with-pizza-delivery-guy-feels-internet-wrath/zXO7rV6jreriD63xG0bj5L/story.html#comments" target="_blank">Westport Car Dealership Messes With Pizza Delivery Guy, Feels Internet’s Wrath</a><br /><br />It's easy enough to see what happened. A bunch of people at a car dealership ordered about $43 with of pizza and soda to be delivered. The guy that paid the driver had two twenties and two fives. He gave them to the driver expecting seven ones back. But he never asked for change. The driver left assuming he got about a 15% tip, which really isn't all that unreasonable to have thought. <br /><br />A call is made, the driver comes back, and returns the $7. The driver also tries to understand why he got called back and that's when it starts to get ugly. Luckily it's all words and it doesn't turn into a fist fight. The driver leaves and one man is probably just being a loud mouth but he is talking about calling the pizza shop to get the driver fired. <br /><br />I actually have some personal experience with a guy like that. It was back in my construction inspection days in the late 90s. A bunch of fill wasn't properly compacted. I told the site manager it didn't pass. He wanted to see the Troxler Nuclear Density Gage (fancy, right?) do the test. No problem. I set it up and started to run a 30 second test. He asked why I didn't do the minute test. I said I can run the minute test if you want. The guy lost it. Apparently he wanted know the different between the tests. My correct response should have been to explain the accuracy on the reading increases the longer the tests takes. I certainly wasn't rude and didn't raise my voice, but at the same time I wasn't a waiter in a cloth napkin restaurant. <br /><br />I'm guessing this guy had a shitty day and decided to take it out on me. I was kicked off the site and told he was going to call my boss to try and get me fired. It was a weird feeling. I had been with the company for over a year and didn't think I'd actually get fired. But what if I did? Probably not the best thing to put on a resume.<br /><br />The guy was true to his word. During the 10 minute drive back to the shop he had called and continued his tantrum over the phone with my boss. When I go into the office, my boss was waiting for me and I was greeted with a, "What the hell happened?" I shrugged my shoulders and told my story. Turns out our versions of the story were very different and my boss knew the construction site manager was completely full of shit before he was 3 sentences into his rant. I bet the pizza shop manager knew the complaint was bullshit and was being PC by saying he took the call seriously at first. <br /><br />The people at the car dealership come off as assholes. And someone else that is stuck working with them, put this video of their co-workers online. Not sure if someone at the car dealership loses a job but this doesn't paint a flattering picture of the dealership. Maybe the lose some sales and commissions, maybe not.<br /><br />In this case, I'd say the customer is wrong. Let's just try to be a little nicer to each other. And if you must throw a tantrum and be a jerk, leave the pizza out of it.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><b>UPDATE: Maybe everyone doesn't suck&nbsp;</b><br /><br />In other random pizza delivery news, a group of real estate agents in Michigan tipped a pizza delivery man named Rob with a few winning scratch off tickets, a $25 Visa gift certificate, a friendship bread, notes of encouragement and appreciation...and a cup of cash worth $2,084.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/01/17/man-delivers-pizza-gets-tip/21914785/" target="_blank">It's a much happier video to watch. </a>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/people-suck.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-2702068881051838909Wed, 14 Jan 2015 01:51:00 +00002015-01-13T20:52:20.551-05:00My first trip to Guptil's<div class="MsoNormal">I had a minor flashback to my childhood over the weekend. I grew up in southern Connecticut during a time that in-line skates didn’t exist. We had roller skates. <span class="GramE">Four wheels on each foot.</span> I can vividly remember skating up and down our driveway with other neighborhood kids. We were leaning over, one arm behind our backs and the other arm moving in time with our feet as we were “speed skating” like Olympic champion Eric <span class="SpellE">Heiden</span>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There were also regular after-school roller skating events in the school's gym that were fun too. I remember a roller skating version of <span class="SpellE">dodgeball</span> where all the kids kept skating around in an oval while our school principal tried to bean the students with a Nerf ball. Get hit, you're out. It was fun for the kids and probably a little therapeutic for the principal. Occasionally, there would be a trip to a roller rink in Stratford, CT. In the early 80’s that rink was packed with people, the musical was loud, and the flashing disco lights would have made John Travolta proud.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0L4_kZ1Skxs/VLXInhNJgUI/AAAAAAAAD5E/iJi-fxCI_Ss/s1600/20150111_142238.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0L4_kZ1Skxs/VLXInhNJgUI/AAAAAAAAD5E/iJi-fxCI_Ss/s1600/20150111_142238.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">&nbsp; </div><div class="MsoNormal">Sunday afternoon, there was a Girl Scout event at <span class="SpellE">Guptil's</span> in Latham. It was the first time I have ever been inside the rink. I’ve been there for ice cream plenty of times but never to skate. I’ve tried ice skating a few times, never tried the in-line style skates and can’t remember the last time I laced up roller skates. This experience was either going to be uneventful or extremely painful.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The skating area is pretty much exactly how it was in Connecticut back in the 80s. <span class="GramE">A big oval with a few areas to pull over and stop skating.</span> <span class="GramE">A huge disco ball.</span>And while they could have deafened everyone there with the speakers that they had set up, they just paid pop music at a reasonable level. There was the skate cop - a rink employee out there skating all the time making sure all was well. Kind of like a beach lifeguard. She even had a whistle and wore a Captain &amp; Tennille style hat.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YqhXP7wsUx0/VLXImv9CZkI/AAAAAAAAD4w/6e-RIgExzvs/s1600/20150111_124903.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YqhXP7wsUx0/VLXImv9CZkI/AAAAAAAAD4w/6e-RIgExzvs/s1600/20150111_124903.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There were a lot of people just doing there best not to wipe out. But there were also all of the same stereotypes that were skating around the roller rink back in the day. There was the guy skating around in his own world with his own music blasting in his ears while he mentally went through a choreographed routine. There was a group of “cool” older teenagers whipping through the crowd faster than they should be. C’mon dude, why would you buzz by a 5 year old kid just trying not to fall? There were also parents that looked like they used to skate a lot (and maybe still do) bringing their kids. You can tell the serious roller skaters because they have their own skates that aren't plain and look like they went with a costume. And in other people watching news, one conservative local radio talk show host appears to own his own skates. The skates looked new. Maybe they were a holiday gift.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Action shots!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6na0WMcIZdQ/VLXInOaWG4I/AAAAAAAAD48/7Z0mirYRz_c/s1600/20150111_125307.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6na0WMcIZdQ/VLXInOaWG4I/AAAAAAAAD48/7Z0mirYRz_c/s1600/20150111_125307.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QOIGOP3e5mE/VLXIna_WFNI/AAAAAAAAD5A/qFxNupkQqOU/s1600/20150111_130012.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QOIGOP3e5mE/VLXIna_WFNI/AAAAAAAAD5A/qFxNupkQqOU/s1600/20150111_130012.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3srBmYNkpLk/VLXImagJ7pI/AAAAAAAAD4s/QAZTRMB23_w/s1600/20150111_125302.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3srBmYNkpLk/VLXImagJ7pI/AAAAAAAAD4s/QAZTRMB23_w/s1600/20150111_125302.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Remember something like this?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ufStVMJYF-4/VLXImdHF4XI/AAAAAAAAD4o/muQ5ZE4YErc/s1600/20150111_124935.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ufStVMJYF-4/VLXImdHF4XI/AAAAAAAAD4o/muQ5ZE4YErc/s1600/20150111_124935.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This is what a waiver used to look like. No signatures, no initials, no copies in triplicate. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>It was a fun time. Pretty much all over these Girl Scout events are fun. In the end I was a little sore, but it was probably more from trying to keep one of my kids from falling while we skated around the rink. I’m not going to pick up skating as a hobby, but I’d go back if they have this event again. It’s a decent winter activity. And it’s winter. Very, very winter. I think today's high was yesterday's low. <span class="GramE"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="GramE"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-boYhCqle15s/VLXIpRRxacI/AAAAAAAAD5Y/jdRvdi1GIEQ/s1600/20150111_142331.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-boYhCqle15s/VLXIpRRxacI/AAAAAAAAD5Y/jdRvdi1GIEQ/s1600/20150111_142331.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a> </span></div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/my-first-trip-to-guptils.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-5834245782165983206Wed, 10 Dec 2014 03:25:00 +00002014-12-09T22:25:27.222-05:00pizzaramblingsWait...what did I just say?<div class="MsoNormal">I’ve never liked going to the dentist. Kramer from Seinfeld would call me an anti-<span class="SpellE">dentite</span> and he’d be right. After leaving the dentist’s office on Monday morning, I figured I’d stop by Restaurant Depot on the way back to the office and pick up another 50 pound bag of pizza flour. You <span class="GramE">know,</span> a reward for being so well behaved at the dentist.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I went with a 50 pound bag of Full Strength flour. For those keeping score at home, the last bag was Hummer Flour, and the first bag was All Trumps. I had forgotten Restaurant Depot carried Royal Oak lump charcoal so I grabbed a bag of that too. Roaming the aisles, I picked up a few more things. The last thing I grabbed was a package of 50 small pizza to-go boxes. I was probably giggling a little when I took them off the shelf and just thinking about them now makes me smile. Whenever I daydream about making pizzas at home in a wood oven, I also imagine sliding a fresh pie into a box and having one of the girls walk or bike a pizza to a neighbor. <span class="GramE">A small, in-neighborhood pizza delivery service.</span> Wouldn’t that be great?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I figured this outdoor closet that we have would be a good place to keep the boxes. Our basement has filled up surprisingly quickly. As I was walking toward the closet, a contractor putting new gutters on my neighbor’s house looked down from his ladder and saw me with 50 pizza boxes over my shoulder. He started a conversation asking about my gutters which we both agree suck. He explained a little about his gutter system and I said I was planning to replace the gutters when the roof gets re-shingled. I’m hoping to 5 more years out of what’s currently up there. He offered to leave me some information on the gutters and I said I give it a look.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then he said, “That’s a lot of pizza boxes. Do you own a pizzeria?”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“No, n<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ot yet.</span>”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“Six years ago someone would ask me if I had a contracting company and I’d say 'not yet' but now I do and it’s the greatest.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">He continued to tell me about his company and I suddenly realized that my response kind of made it sound like I was actively working towards owning a pizzeria. You don't need a psych degree to analyze my quick, subconscious response. While it is true I occasionally go through Craigslist and look at local pizza shops and equipment for sale (doesn't everybody?), these pizza boxes were more of a smile than a business plan.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I doubt <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not yet</i> will ever turn into <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yes</i>, but I should be ready…just in case. I should probably stop typing and make some dough.</div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/waitwhat-did-i-just-say.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-2455128147370846620Wed, 19 Nov 2014 03:59:00 +00002014-11-18T22:59:07.388-05:00super marketsWatching what you eat...literallyAlright, this need to start with a confession. I'm really not proud of this and I probably die a little inside every time I do it but...<br /><br />My kids love tacos and quesadillas. With our beef supply, there is no shortage of ground beef and these can be pretty quick dinners. What haunts my dreams is that the kids prefer Ortega's 40% reduced salt taco seasoning mix over any spice combination I have ever put together from scratch...sigh...oh, the shame. Must be the autolyzed yeast extract and the caramel color. On the plus side, they really like my pizza, which to be honest, is much more important to me.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MM8pgK1cTnE/VGwQ53fD7II/AAAAAAAADug/IWOQBkXJKw0/s1600/Taco-40_Less-Sodium-1_WS300x318.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MM8pgK1cTnE/VGwQ53fD7II/AAAAAAAADug/IWOQBkXJKw0/s1600/Taco-40_Less-Sodium-1_WS300x318.png" /></a></div><br />I gave up trying to make my own seasoning mix and usually you can find 2 or 3 packets of this in my cupboard. Turns out, Ortega recently had a <a href="http://fox6now.com/2014/11/17/recalled-taco-seasoning-mix-taco-sauce-enchilada-sauce-taco-kits-made-by-ortega-las-palmas/" target="_blank">voluntary recall of these spice packets.</a> Apparently one of their third party vendors sold them some spices with traces of peanuts and tree nuts and none of that information made the label. If you aren't allergic to either, who cares? But my oldest can't eat peanuts. It's a mild allergy. A spoonful of peanut butter will make her sick and pretty uncomfortable. Tagalong Girl Scout cookies look a lot like Thin Mints and that mix up happened once. She has been fine eating things "processed on machinery that also processes peanuts and tree nuts" which seems to be a lot of labels as companies appear to go into full cover your ass mode. It's not one of those extremely severe allergies, just something we watch.<br /><br />Well, I had no idea the taco seasoning mix had been recalled until the phone rang. It was a robo-call from Price Chopper letting my wife know about the recall. I must have bought some seasoning there, swiped my Advantage Card and that data went off into the little tubes of the Price Chopper computer databases. So thanks for letting me know about the recall, Price Chopper...but it is a little creepy you remembered I bought it.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/watching-what-you-eatliterally.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-8942709461115167390Wed, 05 Nov 2014 02:51:00 +00002014-11-04T21:52:04.984-05:00HouseUnfortunate, but necessary preparationsWhen we first bought a house just before we got married, I picked up an old, hearty snow blower that had just had the engine rebuilt. It served me well. That first winter we went away for New Years and came home to at least 18 inches of snow in the driveway. That snow blower (which is actually older than I am) took about half an hour to clear it. Over the years, that snow blower cleared that driveway and a neighbor's driveway every time it snowed. I didn't want any money from my neighbor but he gave me a little each spring and again in the fall. The snow blower essentially became free. Once in a while the snow blower need a little work and I got surprisingly good a maintaining it.<br /><br />Last winter was our first winter in this house and got a lot of snow last year. It seemed like even more when the plow was done with the street. After one particularly nasty storm, I cleared the driveway, went to the office and came home to a huge solid pile of snow that was taller than me at the end of the driveway. My trusty late 60's 5 horsepower Ariens couldn't handle that snow. It eventually got it done, but it struggled the whole time. Then something went wrong with the engine at the end of the season. Luckily there wasn't a snow storm that required a snow blower after the motor quit. I don't know enough about engines, but I was pretty sure it was something a engine person could figure out quickly. So, I gave it to my friend Joe. Joe took the snow blower home and quickly fixed her up. He fixed her up so fast that I think he felt a little bad about taking it. Something about the carburetor, a bolt and something else I didn't understand and she came right back to life.<br /><br />The quest for the next snow blower had begun. I checked Craigslist all the time. I found one that looked promising in Saratoga, but it would have been a real hassle to get the snow blower to my house so I passed. Just as I was starting to regret passing on that snow blower, I found and ad in Want Ad Digest and bought this:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EO_tQZ8T0uI/VFmNSWJ2k2I/AAAAAAAADuQ/8Ku8SKffn04/s1600/snowblower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EO_tQZ8T0uI/VFmNSWJ2k2I/AAAAAAAADuQ/8Ku8SKffn04/s1600/snowblower.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />Isn't she pretty? Used, but still really shiny and not many hours on it. I've upgraded the engine from 5 to 9 horsepower. She runs great and looks like she can move a lot of snow. Plus it is the right width to fit nicely in the garage and still be able to open a car door. And it has safety features. That's something new. There was nothing safe about my old snow blower. If I fell down, that thing would have kept going down the driveway, into the neighbors yard and wouldn't have stopped until it sank in their pool. For some reason the state recently (and suspiciously close to election day) sent me two tax rebate checks. Pretty much found money. In my cheap mind, this beast didn't cost $150.<br /><br />My new snow blower....I hope I never need to use it.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/unfortunate-but-necessary-preparations.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-4747406322412842011Wed, 22 Oct 2014 03:47:00 +00002014-10-21T23:47:39.362-04:00HouseTaking the plungeWe moved into this house just over a year ago. Since then we've been trying to decide how to set up the yard. We've met with contractors, worked with a landscape architect and priced different things. We've gone from "that's way too expensive" to "we should just do it and be done" and then back and forth again and again. We always seem to come back to the "just do it" side of the fence and last week we did.<br /><br />When we moved in, the yard looked like this.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e3W2TCqb-XQ/VEcmqzD8oVI/AAAAAAAADr4/_PwfR48M4Yg/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e3W2TCqb-XQ/VEcmqzD8oVI/AAAAAAAADr4/_PwfR48M4Yg/s1600/1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />Then we had the trees removed because they weren't doing anything in terms of privacy, they dropped a shit-ton of needles and several were beginning to lean towards the house. Once the trees were gone, it looked like this.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1NaZLE9MCQ/VEcmq8D0mSI/AAAAAAAADr8/vcNEd3_vEPU/s1600/2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1NaZLE9MCQ/VEcmq8D0mSI/AAAAAAAADr8/vcNEd3_vEPU/s1600/2.JPG" height="298" width="400" /></a></div><br />And now that we've made a decision that will either be an incredible amount of fun, a maintenance nightmare, or both...the yard looks like this.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xOpu3L9w7ZE/VEcnB3TsTCI/AAAAAAAADsI/SpzgHkPxGQE/s1600/IMG_20141019_180803225_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xOpu3L9w7ZE/VEcnB3TsTCI/AAAAAAAADsI/SpzgHkPxGQE/s1600/IMG_20141019_180803225_HDR.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div><br />The pool will open in the spring of 2015. That dirt in the back will end up being patio around the wood oven I've been daydreaming about off and on for a decade.<br /><br />http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/taking-plunge.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-9146787048575710210Tue, 14 Oct 2014 21:39:00 +00002014-12-21T20:36:00.705-05:00pizzarestaurantsTournament of PizzaTournament of Pizza FinalsA good sized crowd gathered at <a href="http://www.shmaltzbrewing.com/" target="_blank">Shmaltz Brewing</a> for the finals. Both <a href="http://www.marinosflyingpizza.com/" target="_blank">Marino's</a> and <a href="http://www.defaziospizza.com/" target="_blank">DeFazio's </a>brought two pizzas for the crowd and judges to eat. Both shops also took the Finals seriously and sent some great pizzas to Clifton Park. Their challenge: 1 vegetable pizza and 1 meat pizza.<br /><br />The judges went for the vegetable pizzas first. Marino's sent in a pizza topped with sauteed green pepper and mushrooms. Defazio's sent in a smoked mozzarella pizza with red peppers and red onions.<br /><br /><b>Marino's Vegetable</b><b> Pizza</b><br />This was the warmest slice we ate. The crust was nicely browned and had good color. It had gotten a little tough in transport from Schenectady to Clifton Park but nothing serious. The sauce was good, not as amazing as the sauce on their Margherita, and I thought the pizza could have used a little bit more of the sauce. Maybe they held back to avoid potential sogginess during shipping. The toppings were sauteed before going on the pizza. I thought the white button mushrooms were delicious. While I'm not a fan of green peppers, this is usually the only way I like them - sauteed down so they lose their bitterness. The cheese on the slice had a nice flavor too. A very enjoyable slice.<br /><br /><b>Marino's Vegetable</b><b> Pizza</b><br /><b>Crust:4, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7, Total:19.</b><br /><br /><b>DeFazio's Vegetable</b><b> Pizza</b><br />The crust on this pizza was delicious. I don't know what they did differently, but I thought this was the best DeFazio's crust I've had that spent time in a take-out box. It was nicely browned and tender. Just the right bit of char. Wow. The sauce is the shops regular pizza sauce, which was added for the Finals - this pizza is usually white. The flavors of the toppings worked well together - smoked mozzarella, small bits of red onion and some roasted red pepper. Up to this point, I believe that this is the best slice of pizza I have had in the Tournament.<br /><br /><b>DeFazio's Vegetable</b><b> Pizza</b><br /><b>Crust:5, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:8, Total:21.</b><br /><br />Moving onto the meat pizza round,<br /><br /><b>Marino's Meat Pizza</b><br />Marino's went with a lot of meat. Pepperoni, meatball, sausage. The crust was a little lighter than the vegetable slice I had and still had good flavor but was a little chewy. They still have a good sauce and again there could have been a little more. But on the flip side, some more could have definitely soaked into the crust during transit. Their pepperoni was the same zippy pepperoni that was on their spicy pizza in the semi finals. Sausage was still excellent. I thought the meatballs were good, but not great. All in all, a very good meat lovers pie.<br /><br /><b>Marino's Meat</b><b> Pizza</b><br /><b>Crust:4, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7, Total:19.</b><br /><br /><b>DeFazio's Meat</b><b> Pizza</b><br />DeFazio's brought a Bolognese pizza. The crust was topped with their Bolognese sauce (slow cooked pork and veal with little bits of pancetta) topped with cheese and then a little bit of crumbled sausage on top. The crust was pretty much the same as their vegetable pizza just slightly darker - delicious. I thought the sauce was well flavored but I thought the wine taste on the finish was a little off. All of the meat was excellent.<br /><br /><b>DeFazio's Meat</b><b> Pizza</b><br /><b>Crust:5, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7, Total:19.</b><br /><br /><b>Pre-Results Wrap Up </b><br />In a damn close decision, I gave the edge to DeFazio's 40 to 38. The crust was the difference for me. I brought the family to the finals. Allison thought the DeFazio's vegetable pizza and the Marino's meat were the best two pizza. If she were picking a slice from the two of those, she went with DeFazio's Vegetable. Casey would pick the same two pizzas also with a preference to DeFazio's. Amy concurred picking those two pizza's as her favorites. When asked which one she would go to for another slice she said, "There, I would have gone for the DeFazio's red pepper one because I couldn't believe how much I liked it. Right now, I think I'd go with the Marino's meat lovers." <br /><br />Really, really close call. I'm not sure how the other judges scored it but I think DeFazio's narrowly won the veggie round and Marino's narrowly won the meat round. It will all come down to the margin of victory in each round. I'm writing this before the results are posted so we'll see if I'm right. The All Over Albany write up of the event is<a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/10/14/top2014-the-final" target="_blank"> here.</a><br /><br /><b>The Results Have Been Posted Wrap Up</b><br />Well, the results are now up at All Over Albany. The People's Choice title went to Marino's meat pizza that barely beat DeFazio's veggie pie, 73 to 72.5.&nbsp; The judges narrowly gave the Tournament Title to DeFazio's 167 to 164. That's really close. If you combine the pizza scores from the People's Choice, the people also gave the title to Defazio's&nbsp; 144.1 to 138.6. So it looks like I was mostly right, DeFazio's won the veggie round, Marino's won the meat round and it all came down to margin of victory. Anyhow, I've talked about pizza at work enough so our holiday party will be pizza trips to DeFazio's and Marino's.<br /><br /><b>The End of the Pizza Tournament</b><br />I was absolutely thrilled to be part of the Tournament. As a long time fan (I came up with an over/under and a points spread for last year's finals) it was a lot of fun to participate. It was even fun getting interviewed by some Saint Rose students covering the finals for a class. I learned a lot about pizza along the way. I knew eating it fresh out of the oven was important, but I didn't realize how important. I also learned that when you are hyper-analyzing pizza there isn't just the variation between shop to shop, there is also variation from slice to slice out of the same pizza. And lastly, if you had asked me if I thought some of the best pizza in the tournament would be meatless, I would have thought you were crazy. But they were. And the DeFazio's smoked mozzarella/red pepper pizza was, in my opinion, Best In Show. I'm going to have to try and copy that one.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/tournament-of-pizza-finals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-1565104141334889974Thu, 09 Oct 2014 23:36:00 +00002014-10-09T19:37:02.054-04:00pizzarestaurantsTournament of PizzaTOP Semi Finals Part 2<b><a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/10/08/top2014-semifinal-spicy">Spicy (AOA link)</a></b><br /><br /><div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">The judging moved on to the “spicy” pizzas. We had already sampled 4 large slices of pizza which was what we had been doing during Round 1. It was time to take a deep breath and double up because there were 4 more slices to be eaten. And they were needed, at least for me because my scorecard after the “Classic” round was essentially a dead heat.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>5<sup>th</sup> and 50 Spicy: Chicken Parmesan Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">There’s no nice way to put this. This pie was everything I didn’t like about 5<sup>th</sup> and 50 from the first round. The rim of the crust was bready and tough. The rest of the crust acted as a stiff support to a layer of topping mush. What sauce you could taste had a really nice level of heat to it but the sauce had been absorbed into the rest of the topping of dry, flavorless ricotta and what seemed like breading that had come off the chicken. In looking around the room (not just the judges table), there were several plates with a slice of this pizza missing one or two bites. That said, one of the guests really liked it.&nbsp; I don’t think 5<sup>th</sup> and 50 makes it into the Finals.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>5<sup>th</sup> and 50 Spicy</b> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Crust:2, Sauce:3, Toppings:1, Overall Taste:3, Total:9.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Marino’s &nbsp;Spicy: Hot Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Marino’s went meat. And plenty of it. The crust was nicely browned but a little dense. The sauce was just ok and didn’t hold up to the zing of the meats. It was there, but you’re not going to be eating this pizza and think “mmm, delicious sauce” like on their Margherita. The heat of the zippy pepperoni and spiced sausage just overpowered the sauce. The cheese had good texture to it, but the flavor was also overpowered by the meats. The pepperoni had good bite to it and I wonder if this is a spicier pepperoni than their usual. This wasn’t pepperoni my kids would enjoy. The sausage was tasty too. And there was plenty of meat. The slice had a real heft to it. If you are into a spicy meat lovers kind of pizza, you will definitely enjoy this pie.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Marino’s &nbsp;Spicy</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Crust:3, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:6, Total:16.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Marissa’s Spicy: Chicken Caccitore Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I have no idea how Marissa’s did it, but on the night of the semi-finals, their crust traveled really well and was the closest to still being in the shop. I liked the sauce. It had a really nice depth of flavor and a slow burning spice/heat that came out after you were done with a bite. I thought there was a strong under current of kalamata olives to the sauce. I happen to like those olives, if you don’t I could see that as a turn off. The fresh mozzarella got a little tough in transport but the braised, shredded chicken was moist, tender and flavored by the sauce. I personally believe that the idea/concept of this pizza is inspired. I’ve never heard of it being done.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Marissa’s Spicy</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Crust:3, Sauce:4, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:7, Total:17.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>DeFazio’s Spicy: Buffalo Chicken Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">After this scored so well in past Tournaments, I had to go to the store and try it. And I enjoyed it. But tonight, something was off. The crust had nice color to it but it was a little bready and dense. The sauce is Franks Red Hot and there was a lot of it on this pie. I suppose that isn’t really a bad thing, but everything on the slice tasted like Red Hot.&nbsp; The bites of chicken were moist, tender and tasted good if you picked them off the slice. Left on the slice, the chicken tasted like hot sauce. There was a little gorgonzola flavor in the back and I could see that melted mozzarella cheese I love, however the hot sauce was pretty much the only flavor. And it’s a shame because I know this pizza can be better. After all, this is one of the highest scoring pizzas in Tournament history, but not tonight. Any given pizza…on my scorecard, Down Goes the Champ.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>DeFazio’s Spicy</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Crust:3, Sauce:2, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:5, Total:14.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here’s how I scored the eight pizzas in the Final Four with Marissa’s and Marino’s getting ready to fight it out for the title.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.4pt;" valign="top" width="99"><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" valign="top" width="68"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Classic</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Spicy</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Total</span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.4pt;" valign="top" width="99"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Marissa’s</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" valign="top" width="68"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">18</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">17</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">35</span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.4pt;" valign="top" width="99"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Marino’s</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" valign="top" width="68"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">17</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">16</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">33</span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.4pt;" valign="top" width="99"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">DeFazio’s</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" valign="top" width="68"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">17</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">14</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">31</span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.4pt;" valign="top" width="99"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">5<sup>th</sup> and 50</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" valign="top" width="68"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">15</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">9</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">24</span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This is how I scored it, but this is a panel of judges so my points are just a quarter of the points available to any individual pizza. Looking at the All Over Albany write up of the semi finals, it looks like the other judges didn't like the flavor of Marissa's tomatoes on their Margherita as much as I did and depending on the person, I could see the kalamata olives in the Caccitore pizza taking a hit. Also, keep in mind that when you are totally nitpicking everything on a pizza, there is even variation between slices from the same pie. The crust is a little different, toppings not quite the same, a little more/less sauce here and there. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I certainly see how Marissa's got bumped out. Hell, on my score sheet, it's only a 4 point spread between the top three shops.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And if you want to nerd out on some numbers, Greg has kindly posted all of the tournament scores in the annual Crunching the Numbers post at All Over Albany. If you take a look at those stats, DeFazio's has put up some serious numbers in the tournament. DeFazio's, Marino's and Marissa's have the highest all time averages. Seems fitting that it came down to those three shops. It will be interesting to see what happens at the Finals this Saturday.</div></div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/top-semi-finals-part-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-2232963624643993686Wed, 08 Oct 2014 00:24:00 +00002014-10-07T20:24:08.322-04:00pizzaFaith in the Pizza UniverseLast week on the pizza forum, someone in Arizona asked if there was anyone in the Northeast that would be willing to send him a bag of pizza flour. A lot of the flours used for pizza don't make it out west. Turns out that a Restaurant Depot here doesn't carry the same flours as a Restaurant Depot out there.<br /><br />Putting my faith in the good will of pizza enthusiasts, I volunteered, totally confident that this complete stranger in Arizona would pay me back. I stopped by Restaurant Depot and picked up a 50 pound bag of flour (not quite $17), headed over to Staples and got a heavy duty box that would hold a 50 pound bag of flour (just over $5) and then went to the big UPS in Latham to ship it (just under $80). I honestly thought the shipping would be less. Apparently there is a surchage to send to Arizona. No idea why.<br /><br />I sent the guy a message to let him know the flour was in the mail, tell him the cost and say $100 was close enough. He quickly replied that he had already received the tracking info and told me to watch my email for a PayPal transfer. Within minutes of letting him know the flour was in in transit, PayPal sent me an email letting me know $102 was just sent to me.<br /><br />People that are really into pizza can be trusted.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-in-z9o__7MY/VDSDlBxe8pI/AAAAAAAADro/ZdRadLYRlV4/s1600/full%2Bstrength.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-in-z9o__7MY/VDSDlBxe8pI/AAAAAAAADro/ZdRadLYRlV4/s1600/full%2Bstrength.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/faith-in-pizza-universe.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-5757889081491151959Tue, 07 Oct 2014 21:34:00 +00002014-10-07T17:34:47.581-04:00pizzarestaurantsTournament of PizzaTournament of Pizza Final Four: Part 1<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> 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font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">I spent the day pacing myself so I could be ready for the Tournament Semi-Finals. Four shops each submitting two pizzas meant 8 slices per judge. Basically an entire large pizza. I started the day with a yogurt and banana. Had a peanut butter and jelly from Stewarts for lunch and then nothing else until the judging started around 6:30. Many thanks to the people at Keeler Mini for hosting and sponsoring these semi finals.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This tasting was kind of a sensory overload for me. Out of the 8 pizzas sampled, only two were similar so there were 7 very different kinds of pizza to eat. I think my note taking suffered during this tasting as I was trying to wrap my head around how much different the to-go pizzas were from the in-store pizzas. And there was just so much pizza. I didn’t step on a scale the morning after this tasting. Ignorance is bliss.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The four semi finalists were asked to submit a pizza they considered to be a “classic” and another they considered “spicy.” We started with four slices of classic.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">5<sup>th</sup> and 50 Classic: Greek Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">The pie was cooked on a screen (the only shop in the finals using one) and my slice didn’t have a rim that easily pulled off. Maybe they roll the rim of the pie over itself. The crust was nicely browned on the top and bottom but a little oily toward the center of the pie. I though the crust was bready and tough by itself but worked with the pizza. A significant improvement, in my opinion, over their Round 1 pizzas. It was a white pizza so there wasn’t really a sauce. As with the white broccoli pie, judges used the flavors and extra cheese for the sauce score. The feta was fairly mild. Nothing wrong with that, I’m not sure a strong feta would have worked well on this pie. The feta was combined with diced bits of ham, or maybe mild bacon or maybe Canadian bacon. I’m not sure which it was and while that is a little unsettling the flavor combined with the tomato pieces was good. Not a great slice, but certainly not a bad one.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">5<sup>th</sup> and 50 Classic</b> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:3, Sauce:3, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:6, Total:15.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Marino’s Classic: Margherita Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">This was the slice where the difference between eating in the store and getting takeout hit me. The crust that I had really enjoyed in Round 1 still had good flavor but was tougher to chew. The color on the crust was nicely browned but the toasty notes seemed to have gotten lost in transit. The sauce though…I think this sauce was the best thing we tasted all night. Really good tomato flavor with delicious chucks of tomato spread out over the slice. What brand of tomatoes are they using? The cheese had a nice flavor but it was a little tough/stringy. I’m not sure there is any way around that with a fresher style of mozzarella being transported. While still a good slice here, this would be great ordered and eaten at the restaurant.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Marino’s Classic</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:3, Sauce:5, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:6, Total:17.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Marissa’s Classic: Margherita Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I don’t know how they did it, but the crust on the Marissa’s Margherita travel better than the others. Definitely had more chew that when we were in the store but it never got that cardboard-y texture some pizza crusts get as the cool off. There was a very thin coating of sauce on the pizza but the tomatoes on the slice, while not looking like they would taste good, did taste good and really perked up the flavor on the slice. The freshly shredded basil was nice too. The fresher mozzarella had browned in spots and became like the Marino’s pie became tough/stringy but the flavor was nice. This slice tasted <i>a lot</i> better than it looked.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Marissa’s Classic</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:4, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7, Total:18.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Defazio’s Classic: Sausage with Peppers and Onions Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">The crust had good color and a little bit of char on the bottom. Once again, the impact of travel on the crust was clear. This crust would have clearly been better in the shop. The sauce had a good tomato flavor. The cheese was tender, flavorful/salty, and I still want to know the brand. The sausage was also good and well seasoned. It had much less of that paprika flavor that we had on their sausage pie in Round 1. Green peppers aren’t my favorite (they aren’t ripe) and this pie had a strong green pepper flavor to it, but it worked.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Defazio’s Classic</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:4, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:6, Total:17.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">After the classic round of the Final Four, I had this scored as pretty much a dead heat. In my mind at this point in the tasting, any of the shops could make it to the Finals. There was a little bit more spread when all of the judges scores were counted, but it is still anyone's round to win. The All Over Albany summary of the classic round is <a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/10/07/top2014-semifinal-classic">here</a>. While the judges and I may differ on opinion here and there, one thing that stands out from looking at the summary is the score for the Marino's Margherita. Their sauce scored a perfect 20, 5 out 5 from each judge. It was really good.</div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/tournament-of-pizza-final-four-part-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-3799494439065680942Sat, 04 Oct 2014 01:59:00 +00002014-10-03T22:04:47.675-04:00Tournament of PizzaTournament of Pizza Round One Wrap Up<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> 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</w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} table.MsoTableGrid {mso-style-name:"Table Grid"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-priority:59; mso-style-unhide:no; border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-border-insideh:.5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev:.5pt solid windowtext; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">I put together a summary of my Round 1 scores. The only outstanding misfire that I see is that Marino’s sausage pie should be higher than Marissa’s and I’ve already mentioned that Marissa’s sausage pie should have been a little lower. A rookie judge mistake. While I may have had doubts when looking back at individual pizzas, I think the “Total” column is a good ranking in how I felt about the shops and the pizza we were served. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 72.9pt;" valign="top" width="122"><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Shop</span></b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Sausage</span></b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Broccoli</span></b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Total</span></b></div></td> </tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 72.9pt;" valign="top" width="122"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">DeFazio’s</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">21</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">19</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">40</span></div></td> </tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 72.9pt;" valign="top" width="122"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Marino’s</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">18</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; 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mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">8</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">17</span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I think the “we were served” part of that last statement is important and something that needs to be taken into consideration. These rankings were based on two pizzas from 8 shops on random Thursday evenings. I’d argue that each of these shops is capable of putting out better (or worse) pizza than the pies we were served. One judge joked, “Any given Thursday” and there is a lot of truth to that. I would, however, also argue that the likelihood of getting a better pizza than what we were served improves the higher you go up this list. And the pizza at Mama Mia’s is better than their score. I bet they lost 6 or 7 points due to an unfortunate decision.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">My top 4 shops can’t be the Final Four because two of them fought it out in a match up but my three highest scores all advanced to the semifinals. In my overall scores, the two shops in Saratoga bracket finished 7<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup>. The order of my rankings of Mama Mia's and 5th and 50 were overruled by the other judges and 5<sup>th</sup>and 50 squeaked into the Final Four.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Some final thoughts on Round 1: Three of the top 4 ranked shops on my list make their own sausage. I think that shows a certain level of commitment to quality ingredients and that commitment comes through in the product they sell. Only one of the shops in my top 4 uses screens. That’s a different level of commitment to skill. In my mind, screens have more to do with convenience and ease than quality. And the final weird thing I noticed looking back at the Round 1 results is that half of the shops in the tournament start with the letter M. I’m not sure what to make of that.</div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/tournament-of-pizza-round-one-wrap-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-2963664580319922796Fri, 03 Oct 2014 02:27:00 +00002014-10-02T22:28:59.446-04:00pizzarestaurantsTournament of PizzaTOP Round 1: DC's vs. Marissa's<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> 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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">I have no idea if there are still tickets available, but if you are interested in being a pizza judge, follow <a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/10/01/tournament-of-pizza-2014-final-event-now-free">this link</a> to see if you can still get a now FREE ticket to the AOA Tournament of Pizza Championship.&nbsp; This is going online a little late. The official results for this pizza battle went up yesterday.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/10/02/top2014-rd1-dcs-vs-marisas-place"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Round 1 Albany Bracket: DC’s versus Marissa’s (AOA link)</span></i></b></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">DC’s in Albany</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">I have a little bit of <a href="http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/pizza-and-twitter.html">history with DC’s</a> but only one visit to their shop. I thought their sausage was good, but the overall slice was lacking. But that was then, this is now and we are judging the slice in front of us. Starting with a slice of sausage pizza: The rim of the crust had a nice depth of flavor but the rim was a little bready. There was no char on the pizza, in fact the pizza was a little bit light in color, and the bottom had plenty of screen markings. The sauce had a pasta sauce quality to it and I think it would have been nice on some ziti. It would also work for pizza but there was too much of it here. The cheese pretty much slid on the sauce and the slice couldn’t support its own weight. The sausage was good, although I’d say it was better at my last visit. All the components combined to make a very middle of the road slice.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sausage Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:2, Sauce:3, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:5 for a total of 13 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Moving onto the broccoli slice, I was surprised at how similar this crust was to the sausage pizza. I guess there is something to be said about the consistency of a screen. The only noticeable difference (and it is kind of a big one), was that without the tomato sauce, this slice was able to support its own weight. The cheese and ricotta worked well together, the ricotta was spread out nicely over the slice and I thought there was a nice seasoning to the pie. The broccoli was minced, I’m guessing frozen but without any large pieces there was no frozen broccoli texture. While I think I would prefer florets, minced is probably the way to go if you are using frozen broccoli.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Broccoli Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:3, Sauce:4, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:6 for a total of 16 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Marissa’s in Guilderland</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">I have had pizza from Marissa’s twice. Once was a whole pie to go (after a previous Tournament of Pizza) that was alright, but nothing that made me excited to return to the shop. The other time was a lunchtime visit for a slice when I was in the neighborhood. My takeaway from these two visits was that Marissa’s pizza was significantly better when reheated as a slice. That second cook really helped the crust out. I was looking forward to seeing how their pizza was fresh out of the oven.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sausage pie first: no screen and some nice color on the bottom of the pie. The rim on my slice was a little pale but there were slices on the pizza that had nice little brown bubbles on the crust. The crust was surprisingly bland by itself but it worked well when combined with the flavors of the sauce and cheese. The sauce had a nice flavor and there was a proper amount of it on the pizza. The sausage was thinly sliced pieces a link sausage. It had a good flavor but was not especially eye pleasing. All in all, I thought the flavors combined nicely to make a good slice.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sausage Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:4, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7 for a total of 19 points. </b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Marissa’s broccoli pie: The crust was darker on the bottom than it was on the top. There were some bubbles on the rim and the slice had a crisp snap when I folded it to take a bite. The drops of ricotta were well distributed but very plain and not seasoned. The broccoli was minced and very similar to DC’s. There was a lot of garlic on the slice. A lot…of what I’m guessing is purchased minced garlic. With fresh garlic and better ricotta, this could have been a much better slice.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Broccoli Pizza</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:4, Sauce:2, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:5 for a total of 14 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Analysis</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the days after this round, I really started second guessing my scores. I still do. This judging is hard. With 20/20 hindsight, I think I gave Marissa’s two points they might not have deserved. The toppings on the sausage pie sausage should have been a 3 and I probably should have given the toppings portion of the broccoli pie a 2. The crust at Marissa’s was bland on its own but I thought worked well with the overall pizza. It would have been nice to have a 3.5 scoring option there. With this 2 point adjustment and the impossible 3.5 scores taken into consideration, my scores for these two shops are even closer at 30 to 29 points with Marissa’s still on top. Based on these four pizzas, that seems right to me. On this night, I think Marissa’s was a little better than DC’s, but not by much. Almost a coin flip. I have spent a lot of time hoping that the other judges also slightly preferred Marissa’s and that these 2 or 3 points don’t impact the outcome of the tournament and luckily they didn’t. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Again, my feeling was that the pizza we sampled at Marissa’s was a little better than DC’s and the scores showed that on my scorecard (33 to 29). Looking at the total scores from all the judges for Marissa’s I gave the sausage pie 19 out of its 74 points (26%) and the broccoli pie 14 out its 60 points (23%). At DC’s I gave the sausage pie 13 of its 57 points (23%) and the broccoli pie 16 of its 67 points (24%). In a completely unscientific way, it would appear that the other judges and I agree on this match up.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Round 1: Albany Wrap Up</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">In another surprise to me, I liked the broccoli pizza more than the sausage pizza at DC’s. My main take away from the night was how important the marriage of individual components in a pizza is. The Marissa’s crust was a little bland, but got significantly better when combined with the sauce and cheese. I think the quality of the DC’s sausage got pulled down by their sauce. Too bad there isn’t a way to make a Franken-pizza combining the best parts of both shops. It was a very close match up and probably goes back to that “any given pizza” theory. Same pizzas ordered at a different time and the outcome of this round could easily be different.</div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/top-round-1-dcs-vs-marissas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-7911182032305640620Thu, 02 Oct 2014 20:59:00 +00002014-10-03T08:08:10.079-04:00pizzarestaurantsTournament of PizzaTOP Round 1: I Love vs. DeFazio's<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><br />I have no idea if there are still tickets available, but if you are interested in being a pizza judge, follow <a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/10/01/tournament-of-pizza-2014-final-event-now-free">this link</a> to see if you can still get a now FREE ticket to the AOA Tournament of Pizza Championship.&nbsp; This is going online a little late. The official results for this pizza battle went up yesterday.<br /><div class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/10/01/top2014-rd1-i-love-vs-defazios">Round 1 Troy Bracket: DeFazio’s versus ILove (AOA link</a>)</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">DeFazio’s in Troy</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Before becoming a judge, I was a tournament spectator that would download the spreadsheet of scores and make up my own statistics. Yeah, this pizza obsession isn’t healthy. Anyhow, a score somewhere in the low 70s seems to be the imaginary line in the sand the separates eh pizza from pizza worth seeking out. One of the stats I remember from looking over all the Tournament scores was that DeFazio’s had submitted the most pizzas with scores of 70 or higher in the tournament. Not too shabby. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now DeFazio’s had a little bit of an advantage over all the other pizza shops - the group of tournament judges were recognized (and proudly shown pictures of a newly born but still unnamed granddaughter) before the pizza order was placed. I’m not sure if that helped or hurt (and my guess is that everyone that came into the shop that day saw pictures of the family’s newest addition), but when the pizza came out of the oven, they knew it was going to be judged. They also timed the delivery of the two pizzas to table a few minutes apart so both were fresh from the oven.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">First up was the sausage pizza. No screen was used, the crust was nicely darkened, there was some char and the crust had good flavor. There were also a few crust bubbles. For the most part, the crust supported the weight of the slice, but the tip of the slice drooped so you had to be quick with the first bite. The sauce had a nice tomato flavor and there was the right amount of it on the slice - not too much, not too little. The sausage was seasoned all the way through and well distributed across the pizza but it wasn’t a standard salt/pepper/fennel Italian sausage. There was another flavor, paprika I believe, that might not be everyone’s favorite. The cheese on the slice was also really tasty and I’m curious about which brand it is. All-in-all, a very good slice that was better than my last visit to DeFazio’s when I ordered the same pizza.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sausage Pie</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:5, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:8 for a total of 21 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Moving on to the broccoli-ricotta pizza, I thought the crust was pretty much the same in appearance and flavor as the sausage pizza. The ricotta was very smooth and creamy. There was a nice garlic flavor to the slice. The garlic was there, but not overpowering. The broccoli was diced and spread nicely around the pizza but tasted like it had been frozen. This pizza also had the same, delicious mozzarella in the mix. It was a very good broccoli pie.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Broccoli Pie</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:5, Sauce:4, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:7 for a total of 19 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I Love</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Where DeFazio’s may have had a slight advantage in recognizing us, I Love might have had a slight disadvantage in hosting a small crowd. Seating in the shop is limited. The broccoli pizza came out first and I think the sausage was ready at the same time, but there was no place to put it. So it sat in the back until we were mostly done with the broccoli pie. By the time the sausage pizza got to us, it was like we had ordered it to go and drove it home. It might have actually fared better in a cardboard box than waiting on a metal tray. Since the broccoli pizza came out first, this is in a different order than the rest of the Round 1 write ups.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The crust on the broccoli pizza was a little pale on top and light brown on the bottom. No screen was used. There was just a little, not a lot, of uncooked flour taste and the crust was crisp. The ricotta was smooth but seasoned with a ton of black pepper - to the point of almost being spicy. The mozzarella had good flavor and pulled into strings when you took a bite. The broccoli had been frozen and was cut into florets and there was a nice background of garlic to the slice. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Broccoli Pie</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:2, Sauce:3, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:4 for a total of 12 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The sausage pie had a crust with a little bit more browning and none of the raw flour taste. No screen was used and because the pizza sat a little while, there was a definite chew to the crust. The slice lacked any crispiness. The sauce was very sweet. Really, really sweet. The sausage was sliced rounds that had nice flavor but some toughness when chewed. The colder cheese had gelled up and lost all of the great stringy qualities that were on the broccoli slice.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sausage Pie</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:2, Sauce:2, Toppings:2, Overall Taste:6 for a total of 12 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Analysis</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’d argue that the pizza we sampled at DeFazio’s was much better than I Love and my scorecard clearly shows that (40 to 24). Looking at the total scores from all the judges for DeFazio’s I gave the sausage pie 21 out of its 85 points (25%) and the broccoli pie 19 out its 81 points (23%). At I Love I gave the sausage pie 12 of its 54 points (22%) and the broccoli pie 12 of its 46 points (26%). In a completely unscientific way, it would appear that the judges and I are in near pretty close agreement with this match up.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Round 1: Troy Wrap Up</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Maybe I have a little bit of bias since DeFazio’s is the closest I’ve found to my ideal pizza in the area. I think the final tale of the tape in this match up can be told by the leftovers. The pizzas at I Love were a little larger than DeFazio’s, but a quarter of each pizza was leftover. Nothing was leftover at DeFazio’s. When put head to head, I think I would always prefer a pizza from DeFazio’s to I Love but the two shops appear to be targeting different audiences. DeFazio’s doesn’t sell slices and I Love looks to cater to a late night bar crowd long after DeFazio’s closes for the night. So, if you are looking for a 1 am slice (and ok with really sweet sauce), I Love will do the trick. And maybe a quick reheat helps out the crust too. If you are just into the pizza, I’d head up the road to DeFazio’s.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/top-round-1-i-love-vs-defazios.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-3523134542084186903Tue, 30 Sep 2014 22:37:00 +00002014-09-30T18:37:52.692-04:00pizzarestaurantsTournament of PizzaTOP Round 1 - Mario's vs. Marino's<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> 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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]-->The All Over Albany Tournament Of Pizza moves on to the next battle. My pizza insanity has driven me to document each slice I eat as a judge in the Tournament. <a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/09/25/tickets-now-on-sale-for-the-2014-tournament-of-piz">If you would like a chance at judging some pizza, ticketsare available for the finals.</a> You’ll get the same pizza as the judges, some beer samples and a brewery tour. One thing I’ve learned on past pizza quests is that tasting things back-to-back or side-by-side can seriously impact your perception of what you are eating. If you are around on October the 11<sup>th</sup>, come join me at Schmaltz Brewing to eat pizza and crown this year’s Tournament champ. <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As a little reminder, here’s how the rounds were scored. Each judge had 25 points to award (or not award) a pizza. Crust, sauce and toppings were given up to 5 points each and then Overall Taste was allowed up to 10 points. After each round, I wrote up my thoughts on the evening within a day so that they would still be fresh in my mind. Here’s how I thought the second tournament match-up went.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/09/30/top2014-rd1-marios-vs-marinos"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Round 1 Schenectady Bracket: Mario’sversus Marino’s (AOA link)</span></i></b></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Mario’s in Niskayuna</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">For consistency’s sake, I began with the sausage pizza. The crust has a little bit of browning and there were screen marks on the bottom of the slice. The crust was a little tough and dense, kind of bready. The sauce was decent but nothing special. The cheese was a little tough and rubbery. The kind of cheese that when you bite it, it all comes off the slice. The sausage was seasoned all the way through, but the flavor was just so-so. The pizza looked a lot better than it tasted.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sausage Pie</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:3, Sauce:3, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:4<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>for a total of 13 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Moving onto Mario’s white broccoli pie. The first thing you notice looking at the pizza is how wet and runny the ricotta was, but it had an OK flavor. The crust was browned but looked oily - and it was. This crust was also cooked on a screen and a little bready. The rim was dusted with something. I took a taste of the dusting and that was a mistake; it tasted like a ton of granulated garlic. After the scores were in, another judge made a comment that was right on the money. His slice had an everything bagel taste with what he thought was some onion mixed in with the garlic. I didn’t catch any onion flavor on my slice, but a garlic bagel is a great description. The broccoli was cut into bite size pieces and tasted like frozen broccoli. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Broccoli Pie</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:2, Sauce:3, Toppings:2, Overall Taste:4 for a total of 11 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Marino’s in Schenectady</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I had driven by a few times but never stopped at Marino’s. When you walk in, it has the feel of a nice family restaurant. Nicer than a hole in the wall with a very friendly feel to it. Sticking to the same order as last week, I began with a slice of the sausage pizza. The crust was nicely browned, no noticeable char on my slice (a few darker spots on the rim) and they don’t use pizza screens. I thought the sauce was nice and light. There was a good distribution of sausage clumps all over the pizza and it had the standard sweet Italian sausage flavor, but that flavor wasn’t very strong. On the way out, I asked if the made the sausage there and they do. The cheese had a nice flavor and a good amount of salt. All in all, I thought it was a good pizza.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sausage Pie</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:4, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7 for a total of 18 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Next up was the white broccoli pizza. The crust was lightly browned with some delicious random bubbles on the rim and once again, no screen. I found nothing to complain about with the crust. There was a heavy garlic aroma coming off the pizza and small ricotta dots were spread out all across the pizza. The broccoli tasted like fresh, not frozen and cut into bite size pieces. A tiny bit of garlic got burned in the oven and I had one bite with the strong taste of burnt, bitter garlic. Other than that one bite, I thought this pizza was pretty much as good as a white broccoli pizza gets.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Broccoli Pie</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust:5, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:8 for a total of 20 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Analysis</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">In my opinion, the pizza we sampled at Marino’s was better than Mario’s and the scores showed that with Marino’s having a sizable lead on my scorecard (38 to 24). Looking at the total scores from all the judges for Marino’s I gave the sausage pie 18 out of its 74 points (24%) and the broccoli pie 20 out its 84 points (24%). At Mario’s I gave the sausage pie 13 of its 49 points (27%) and the broccoli pie 11 of its 46 points (24%). In a completely unscientific way, it would appear that the judges and I are in near perfect agreement with this match-up.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Round 1: Schenectady Wrap Up</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">If you told me that I’d taste 4 pizzas and like a white broccoli pie the best, I’d think you were dreaming. So I’m surprised to see a white broccoli pie with the most points I awarded to a pizza after two match-ups of pizzerias that have already proven themselves in the tournament. But I wasn’t alone. One thing that was mentioned as we left Marino’s was that all of the judges ranked the Marino’s broccoli pie higher than their sausage pie. Several years ago, I went to Mario’s for dinner. They offer a pizza on a long cutting board. Going on what’s left of my memory, that pizza (while more of a Sicilian style) was better than their round pizza. As for Marino’s, I’m going to bring the family there for dinner sometime. Seemed like a nice, family friendly neighborhood joint. The world needs more of those.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/top-round-1-marios-vs-marinos.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-6614218611738816695Mon, 29 Sep 2014 22:10:00 +00002014-09-29T18:17:34.869-04:00pizzarestaurantsTournament of PizzaTOP Round 1 - Momma Mia's vs. 5th and 50<div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal">I think about pizza all the time. Making pizza, eating pizza, flours, hydration percentages, handling the dough, dough fermentation, heat, brands of tomatoes, brands and types of cheese (I’ve found the way you grate the cheese makes a difference), topping combinations…all the time. So when I was invited to participate as a judge in the All Over Albany 2014 Tournament <span class="GramE">Of</span> Pizza, I was willing to quit my job to attend. I’d get to try pizza from a bunch of places I’d never gotten around to trying, plus I’d be spending time with people that were also into hyper-overanalyzing pizza - it’s my personal heaven. And as luck would have it, most of the judging takes place in the evening and I am still employed.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">First off, this judging gig is harder than I thought it was going to be. Attaching a number value to specific elements of pizza was difficult. Say half the crust is soggy but the other half is good - what do you do? Since I tend to be my own worst critic when it comes to my pizza making, I may have been a little harsh on some of the pizza in the tournament. The objective was to judge each slice for what it was, not what I hoped or wanted it to be. Regardless of whether or not I like a <span class="SpellE">poofy</span>crust, was this a good <span class="SpellE">poofy</span> crust? And second, after each match up in Round 1 of the Tournament, I got to spend the next 24 to 48 hours second guessing myself.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here’s how the rounds were scored. Each judge had 25 points to award (or not award) a pizza. Crust, sauce and toppings were given up to 5 points each and then Overall Taste was allowed up to 10 points. I like having the Overall Taste category because sometimes a pizza is actually better than the sum of its parts. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">After each round, I wrote up my thoughts on the evening within a day so that they would still be fresh in my mind. I thought I would share each of these write ups covering every pizza we ate in the tournament as the tournament unfolds over at All Over Albany. I tried snapping a few pictures but the lighting wasn’t cooperating on the first night so I gave up. Photos of all the pizzas are at the All Over Albany site along with the final results from each round.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/09/29/top2014-rd1-mama-mias-v-5th-and-50" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Round 1 Saratoga Bracket: Mama Mia’sversus 5th and 50 (AOA link)</span></i></b></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Mama Mia’s in Saratoga</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Once seated in the restaurant, we ordered two pizzas (a large sausage and a large white pizza with broccoli) with a round of waters. The first pie to the table was the sausage pizza. I liked the crust. I was actually a little surprised how much I liked the crust. They didn’t use a screen (I’m morally opposed to pizza screens)<span class="GramE">,</span> it had little bit of char to it and good flavor. There wasn’t much sauce on the pizza. <span class="GramE">Which is fine.</span> There’s a thin line between over saucing and under-saucing a pizza. A taste of the just the sauce lacked fresh tomato flavor but it didn’t detract from the overall pizza - one of those sum is larger than the parts things. The cheese on the pizza was OK, nothing noteworthy. The seasoning in the sausage wasn’t evenly mixed. Most of the slice I had seemed unseasoned, no real flavor to it. As I ate more of the slice, the seasoning became much more pronounced and better. I’m not sure where the sausage came from, but it looked almost like chipped meat as opposed to having been run through a grinder. The crust carried the slice and makes me think with a different topping, this could be one of the better pizzas in the area.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Sausage Pizza </b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust<span class="GramE">:4</span>, Sauce:2, Toppings:2, Overall Taste:6 for a total of 14 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There was a little bit of a mix up with the white broccoli pizza. The pizza maker forgot the broccoli. Our waitress asked if we wanted the pizza anyway or if we wanted to wait for one with broccoli. Seeing as this was to be compared with other pizzas that had broccoli, we waited. However, instead of making a new pizza that had broccoli, they steamed/and or nuked what tasted like frozen broccoli and spread it out on top of the original pizza. If you look at the picture at the All Over Albany site, that broccoli wasn’t cooked on the pizza. This crust was nothing like the sausage pie. Although it looked like some if it might have been. The slice I got was incredibly soggy. The bottom of the crust was very pale. There was none of the crispness and char that was on the sausage pie. There is no sauce, so the sauce ranking in this round is based on the seasoned oil and ricotta cheese. Both were fine. The seasoning in the oil looked a little clumped together but it was passable. The broccoli was completely unseasoned and with no time in the oven it tasted like thawed, frozen broccoli.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Broccoli Pizza </b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust<span class="GramE">:2</span>, Sauce:2, Toppings:1, Overall Taste:4 for a total of 9 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">5<sup>th</sup> and 50 in Scotia</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">As a fan of the Tournament of Pizza, I had heard of 5<sup>th</sup>and 50 when they won the whole tournament. I had wanted to go, maybe grab a pie on the way to my in-laws, but it never happened. We got there around 8:00 and put in the same order - large sausage and a white pizza with broccoli. One thing to note, customers can’t see the pizza ovens and I’m always a little distrustful of a pizza place that doesn’t showcase their pizza making. Sometimes in a full service restaurant that also serves pizza, the oven can be in the back. But think of your favorite pizza place. Can you openly see the pizza ovens? I bet you can.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We ate the Sausage pie first. It was disappointing. The crust was clearly baked on a screen. Maybe they slid it off and finished cooking it on the deck as it had some color. The crust from the middle of the slice to the triangle tip of the slice was completely soggy. There was no picking this slice <span class="GramE">up,</span> I ate half the slice with my fingers. Here’s the weirdest thing about the crust: I don’t know if they were using a mechanical dough press or two pieces of dough, but the rim of the crust pulled off in the same way a cinnamon roll pulls apart. It didn’t look like one piece of dough. The tomato sauce was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very</i>watery and probably to blame for the condition of the crust. <span class="GramE">Nothing really notable about the cheese.</span> The sausage was dispersed in large clumps and seasoned throughout, but whatever the seasoning was it wasn’t very good. In my mind, this was not a good offering from a past tournament champion and a shop that had a banner showcasing a Pizza Wars event victory.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Sausage Pizza </b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust<span class="GramE">:2</span>, Sauce:1, Toppings:2, Overall Taste:4 for a total of 9 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The crust on the sauce-less white broccoli pizza was much crisper. You could pick up the slice. Still cooked on a screen and still had that weird rim. There was no ricotta, just oil, cheese, broccoli and some seasonings. It was pretty greasy and I think the main seasoning was garlic powder, maybe granulated garlic. This broccoli also tasted like it was frozen, but it was minced up and distributed over the pizza. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Broccoli Pizza </b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Crust<span class="GramE">:2</span>, Sauce:1, Toppings:2, Overall Taste:3 for a total of 8 points.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Analysis</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m a nerd, so bear with me. I flat out didn’t like the pizza we sampled at 5<sup>th</sup> and 50. So while Mama Mia’s stumbled a little bit against a former tournament champ, they still won the matchup 23 to 17 on my score card. However, the other judges didn’t agree with me and 5<sup>th</sup>and 50 advanced to the semi finals. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We don’t really discuss scores so I have no idea how anyone else scored the pizzas. Four score sheets were used. In looking at the points awarded to Mama Mia’s, I gave the sausage pie 14 out of its 64 points (22%) and the broccoli pie 9 out its 34 points (26%) - both about a quarter of the awarded points. Not the same at 5<sup>th</sup> and 50.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>At 5<sup>th</sup> and 50 I gave the sausage pie 9 of its 53 points (17%) and the broccoli pie 8 of its 55 points (15%). Not exactly scientific way to see if opinions line up, but interesting…to me anyway. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Round 1: Saratoga Wrap Up</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I learned that this judging stuff isn’t that easy and my numbers may have been a little harsh. It was my first time evaluating pizza with a set number scale and I had to leave room for the possibility of better pizza. I left the night with the goal of being consistent throughout the tournament and that might make me a low scoring judge. I also learned how difficult consistency in a restaurant is to control. I don’t know what happened at Mama Mia’s, but I’m certain we didn’t get their best effort on the broccoli pie. Under a different set of circumstances (server, pizza maker, day), I bet Mama Mia's broccoli score would have been higher. And at 5<sup>th</sup> and 50, there looked to be three fairly young people working. Maybe their pizza is better with more experience in the kitchen. Looks like I’ll get to see if they can improve in the next round.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/tournament-of-pizza-round-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-3322902873044079065Wed, 10 Sep 2014 02:00:00 +00002014-09-09T22:00:09.677-04:00Black Stone OvenpizzaA new toyI saw a post on the pizza forum that the Black Stone Oven was on sale for $300 and available at Lowes. We were in Lowes for a few other things so I gave the oven the once over while we were there. Two days later I went back and bought. After I put it all together, I was giggling with excitement because I had this in my garage. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QIAnkr8gUhk/VA-lGn6g2CI/AAAAAAAADpY/3xB-Rj2MiRI/s1600/20140828_230508.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QIAnkr8gUhk/VA-lGn6g2CI/AAAAAAAADpY/3xB-Rj2MiRI/s1600/20140828_230508.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />I fought getting the stickers off of the shelves but opted against dealing with the one around the thermometer. I figured some use would get that off without scratching it up. Not that it was together, I set about making some modifications I had read about online. The easiest was putting some stainless steel washers under the bottom stone to make an air gap. The bottom can get hotter than the top. Important safety tip: do not use zinc plated washers. When zinc plating gets hot it can put off a toxic gas. Splurge the extra buck for stainless steel.<br /><br />I also rewired the power cable to the rotisserie motor (the bottom plate spins). With a counter clockwise rotation, you can see the pizza just before it goes through the hottest part of the oven so you can decide to pull the pizza a little easier. To rewire the motor, you just cut the wire, strip the plastic coating and attach the red to black, black to red and cover it all up. Right now it is just covered with electrical tape, but I plan to solder it and cover the wires in shrink wrap to make it look prettier. <br /><br />Finally, I added a "Chau-flector." It's a little metal shield named for it's inventor on the pizza forum. People have used sheet metal, the end of a spatula or parts of a grater to make the Chau-flector. I went with a little flipper I found in a restaurant supply store.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sblgHTf2WyM/VA-ng8m2qUI/AAAAAAAADps/ovcChqnKbDU/s1600/20140908_115933.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sblgHTf2WyM/VA-ng8m2qUI/AAAAAAAADps/ovcChqnKbDU/s1600/20140908_115933.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><br />I broke the handle off and flattened it a little bit. I tried to just bend it, but needed to use a hammer to convince it to bend. You can kind of see it hanging down from the upper stone. It's dark in the oven and the phone flash didn't really get a good shot. So the smaller piece of steel originally near the wood handle is tucked under the upper oven plate, and the longer part of the spatula reflect head back down onto the spinning pizza.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ns5fqYfQtYo/VA-ng8bujYI/AAAAAAAADpk/kO9RcHcRXJk/s1600/20140908_120810.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ns5fqYfQtYo/VA-ng8bujYI/AAAAAAAADpk/kO9RcHcRXJk/s1600/20140908_120810.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />On Saturday, I made 8 dough balls using the Progessive flour I got from Restaurant Depot. Normally, I only make 4, but I wanted to play with my new toy. The plan was to go to Fall Ball softball games all morning, then make pizza all afternoon. But that got cancelled for a birthday party so I got the dough into the fridge and hoped it would still be good on Monday.<br /><br />On Monday, the workday couldn't end fast enough. I got home and starting putting the toppings together and set up a working table in the garage - a piece of plywood on two saw horses covered with a Halloween tablecloth. I didn't hav enough space for the dough balls on the table, so I commandeered the kids' wagon. Pizza Emergency.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gnEKjy0fbz4/VA-p4mPZ-BI/AAAAAAAADqE/uKvym9kCFJM/s1600/20140908_173839.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gnEKjy0fbz4/VA-p4mPZ-BI/AAAAAAAADqE/uKvym9kCFJM/s1600/20140908_173839.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ni1Fhpm0-Uk/VA-p4jOdpDI/AAAAAAAADqI/DdHaF4pQOU4/s1600/20140908_173847.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ni1Fhpm0-Uk/VA-p4jOdpDI/AAAAAAAADqI/DdHaF4pQOU4/s1600/20140908_173847.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />I fired up the oven and let it go until the bottom plate was reading in the mid 700s with my el-cheapo temp gun. You can see the burner is directly above that knob on the front of the oven. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Joc9KzaTrTM/VA-qo-FreGI/AAAAAAAADqY/ZWnKXHvi7-k/s1600/20140908_173920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Joc9KzaTrTM/VA-qo-FreGI/AAAAAAAADqY/ZWnKXHvi7-k/s1600/20140908_173920.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />Here we go, the first pizza launch, captured for posterity by my daughter Allison. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MXZDeAgshGA/VA-qpFHk7GI/AAAAAAAADqg/trChk0ZJUZk/s1600/20140908_174634.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MXZDeAgshGA/VA-qpFHk7GI/AAAAAAAADqg/trChk0ZJUZk/s1600/20140908_174634.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />You can see the quick oven spring on the rim of the pizza. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ueecg6LbQv0/VA-qo79R5WI/AAAAAAAADqc/RXxksQ7soT0/s1600/20140908_174733.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ueecg6LbQv0/VA-qo79R5WI/AAAAAAAADqc/RXxksQ7soT0/s1600/20140908_174733.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><br />About 2 minutes later, here was a lovely sausage and mushroom pie. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sCxGbzkQIhU/VA-qpbCicQI/AAAAAAAADqo/KsHI8LemcMk/s1600/20140908_174849.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sCxGbzkQIhU/VA-qpbCicQI/AAAAAAAADqo/KsHI8LemcMk/s1600/20140908_174849.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><br />I cranked out five more fairly quickly with varying degrees of success.&nbsp; I need to work on managing the heat and keeping the bottom stone a little cooler. One thing I'm going to do next time around is dial down the heat in between bakes. I did that at the end and I think it helped. I'm also going to adjust the position of my Chau-flector a little. You can kind of see the deflector while this pizza cooks. You can also see that front sticker being abused by the heat of the oven.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6-mc_aJTkfI/VA-qp1gOZaI/AAAAAAAADqw/pBNtcGSBaIs/s1600/20140908_175458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6-mc_aJTkfI/VA-qp1gOZaI/AAAAAAAADqw/pBNtcGSBaIs/s1600/20140908_175458.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />After six successful pizza launches onto an 800 degree pizza stone that is rotating counter clockwise, I hesitated while launching the 7th pizza. Here's my undercooked accidental calzone. <br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6L4ii-eQm6w/VA-qqqRHf6I/AAAAAAAADrI/NYtOdf2w6Ww/s1600/20140908_185932.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6L4ii-eQm6w/VA-qqqRHf6I/AAAAAAAADrI/NYtOdf2w6Ww/s1600/20140908_185932.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></div><br />But we ended on a high note. This cherry tomato/black olive for the kids was pretty good. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J7PqMSmb1a0/VA-qqBm-rGI/AAAAAAAADq4/SCEpVXBeZrw/s1600/20140908_184800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J7PqMSmb1a0/VA-qqBm-rGI/AAAAAAAADq4/SCEpVXBeZrw/s1600/20140908_184800.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />Now I need to focus on oven management and dough. My dough balls were sized for 13.5 inch pizzas. I'm going to scale that down to 13 inches. I also have a list of doughs I want to try out. Definitely a work in progress. I still want a wood fired oven and this will be a good stepping stone.<br /><br />This is going to be fun...and fattening.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-new-toy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-1850122916144858830Wed, 27 Aug 2014 03:56:00 +00002014-08-26T23:56:51.546-04:00ramblingsrandomRandomness from the weekSome random things since the last post... <br />&nbsp; <br />1. Last week the kids found out who there teachers were going to be this year. A few days later, the kids received a letter from the principal asking them to wear school colors on the first day of school for a big assembly. I wouldn't have thought it was a big deal seeing as they had worn school colors to a number of spirit days and other events each year of school...<br /><br />But never on the first day. They had outfits picked out for the first day. Plans were made before being rudely interrupted. It's been a few days. They are still upset and stressing over the search for new clothes that meet certain set of first day outfit requirements and contain school colors.<br /><br />2. I set off a little firestorm redirecting the kids' first day outfit anger at me. Allison came up with the idea of making some Italian ice. Unfortunately, there was no time to make Italian ice before the kids went to visit my in-laws for a few days. So on my way out, I told Allison I would have everything at the house when she got back and then asked if she wanted to keep scraping a pan like the recipe called for, or use the ice cream machine. She said she wanted to use the ice cream machine and I headed off to work. <br /><br />Apparently, the kids didn't remember we had an ice cream maker. They were both there the last time the ice cream maker got used but that was a few years ago. It's one of those appliances that gets used twice a decade. On the ride to my in-laws, my wife was peppered with questions:<br /><br />Dad said we have and ice cream machine.<br />Where is the ice cream machine?<br />What color is it? <br />Did you know we had one?<br />What does it look like?<br />Did you get it before we were born?<br />You've had an ice cream machine and never told us about it? <br />Why didn't you tell us you had an ice cream machine?<br /><br />This isn't going to end well for me. I know that their imaginations have lead them to believe there is a full sized soft serve ice cream machine hidden in the basement when in reality, it is a small little Cuisinart thing the size of a toaster. I've already cleaned out the little freezer insert. I should go put it in the freezer immediately.<br /><br />4. The bottom rubber thing (I believe that is the technical term) on the bottom of the side door to our garage was falling off. I took the door off the hinges to get a better look. Instead of being able to just replace the unattached bottom rubber thing, I found a lot of dry rot. Turns out the bottom rubber thing was supposed to be attached to wood that had disappeared. Not wanting to have to replace the whole door and deal with realigning hinges, I dug out all the dry rot and replaced it with two types of epoxy, some paint stirrers used as filler and a new bottom rubber thing. In the end, I think it cost about $25. Hopefully this particular "fix" will last a few years.<br /><br />5. I spend a lot of time thinking about pizza. Probably too much time. Between vacation and a few other things, I haven't spent much time on the pizza forum. I went from being right on top of things to 26 pages of forum threads behind. I was surprised to have found a knock-down, no holds barred argument over leavening agents suitable for a classic New York Style pizza. I was actually taken aback by the fight having never seen anything that mean spirited on the forum. The main participants were two guys that I have never met, but I have come to respect and admire both of them. I was relieved to see it had kind of ended and one of the guys related it to brothers fighting. But still, I've got a shit-ton of catching up to do.<br /><br />6. More pizza. All of of backyard plans seem to stall out because of pure indecision. We've gone around in circles several times. Doesn't look like the wood fired oven is going to happen in 2014. There's still a good chance we will make progress on the yard and maybe get the foundation set, but I don't want to race winter with a masonry project. I want to be able to take my time. Get it right.<br /><br />On the other hand, I hate our oven for making pizza. It just doesn't get hot enough. So as a temporary band-aid, I bought a Black Stone pizza oven at Lowes. There's been a lot of beautiful pizza coming out of them on the forum. Hopefully I'll be able to make some too once I get it assembled.<br /><br />7. Still more pizza. Back when I made the Firedome, I had to trim an inch or two off a peel so it would fit through my makeshift oven door. I've grown tired of only being able to make really small pizza and I'd like to learn how to form larger dough balls. During lunch today, I set off to Bed Bath and Beyond to check out their peels. Have I mentioned I take pizza too seriously?<br /><br />The only pizza peel they had there was basically a pizza peel shaped cutting board for $35. C'mon.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uccKkPhkV0M/U_1QGiqBmYI/AAAAAAAADo8/Wzizb1BDib4/s1600/20140826_130644.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uccKkPhkV0M/U_1QGiqBmYI/AAAAAAAADo8/Wzizb1BDib4/s1600/20140826_130644.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0B4jKz5M_o4/U_1QGm2QE8I/AAAAAAAADo0/b4mHHoXq3Us/s1600/20140826_130634.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xVZYW7URLYo/U_1QGX7-rRI/AAAAAAAADow/WexMvuXKeyQ/s1600/20140826_130618.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xVZYW7URLYo/U_1QGX7-rRI/AAAAAAAADow/WexMvuXKeyQ/s1600/20140826_130618.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></div><br />The peel is made with wood fibers and some kind of resin. It's also dishwasher safe. Not sure why you would want that, but maybe someone out there does. I don't know if you can read the "heat resistant" section out in the second picture. This $35 cutting board is "heat resistant"&nbsp; all the way up to 350 degrees F. I can even get my crappy oven up to 500 degrees. I see this $35 piece of saw dust and glue melting all over someone's pizza stone or steel. I should be able to take a deep breath and move on, but instead I took pictures and then was pissed for the rest of the day. It's not healthy. I'll see if I can get to a restaurant supply store tomorrow.&nbsp; I bet I can get a better peel for less than half the cost.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/randomness-from-week.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-1804474403326035053Wed, 20 Aug 2014 05:02:00 +00002014-08-20T01:02:39.546-04:00TravelVacation, all I ever wanted.If ever there was a good week to be kind of unplugged from reality, last week was it. As luck would have it, we were on the road. In a rented minivan. Because of a fender bender. My wife got hit driving through a parking lot. Just in time for our road trip. Not a big deal, just a pain in the ass. The vacation began with dropping off a car at a collision center and bringing home the rental. We loaded that bad boy to the roof and headed south. Day one, we drove to Maryland and stayed in a hotel. Day two, we continued driving south to North Carolina. Now we knew we were heading through Goldsboro, NC and pretty close to the legendary BBQ joint named Wilbur's. Wilbur's has the best pulled pork I've ever had. We used to stop in when my brother and sister in law used to live in Raleigh. I haven't been there in 11 years. The GPS said we were going to be about 20 miles away. After sitting in a lot of traffic, it was going to take too long to stop in so we skipped it. Until, we came around a corner and it looked very familiar. and then there it was.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CzDaLpIuUfM/U_Qgz2nzP_I/AAAAAAAADoQ/sdXWeZGNYaI/s1600/wilbur.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CzDaLpIuUfM/U_Qgz2nzP_I/AAAAAAAADoQ/sdXWeZGNYaI/s1600/wilbur.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />After swerving across a lane of traffic, we parked and went in. We had eaten lunch already so I picked up some pulled pork to go. A pound of damn good pulled pork, 4 buns, 2 dozen hush puppies, and a container of slaw...I got change from $11. From Wilbur's, we had about 2 more hours on the road. We checked into the condo and this was the view we were going to have to deal with for a week.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FWz_i0tsc_s/U_QgzgIbsnI/AAAAAAAADoM/T2-CyjqkGOA/s1600/view.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FWz_i0tsc_s/U_QgzgIbsnI/AAAAAAAADoM/T2-CyjqkGOA/s1600/view.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></div><br />Rough, right? We were down there with another family and we had a great time. A lot of swimming in the ocean. There was a sand bar on this beach so you could be 40 feet out into the water and it was still only 6 feet deep. The waves would gently pick you up and put you back down. The weather was perfect all week and there was only one day that the waves were a little choppy. And this happened too. In front are my kids, my friend Joe and his kids. That little fin in the back is one of several dolphins that swam by.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U-xqAK7eI1U/U_QgrPqOuoI/AAAAAAAADnI/19ygMwEkRDg/s1600/DOlphin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U-xqAK7eI1U/U_QgrPqOuoI/AAAAAAAADnI/19ygMwEkRDg/s1600/DOlphin.jpg" height="307" width="400" /></a></div><br />We saw sea turtles at a rescue center. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aWPY5ZWbJsk/U_QgzofF6aI/AAAAAAAADoY/OUpZJYe6bXM/s1600/turtle.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aWPY5ZWbJsk/U_QgzofF6aI/AAAAAAAADoY/OUpZJYe6bXM/s1600/turtle.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></div><br />And this happened every day at 4:00. Nothing like some beach side grown up quiet time juice.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rD6lNVikHhg/U_Qgq51srFI/AAAAAAAADnA/ihonQ0MGE9k/s1600/5oclock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rD6lNVikHhg/U_Qgq51srFI/AAAAAAAADnA/ihonQ0MGE9k/s1600/5oclock.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />Margaritas are just better with sand between your toes. I had never heard of this, but apparently sharks go through a lot of teeth. These teeth fall out and then fossilize in the salt water. Once you know what too look for, you can find a lot of teeth.&nbsp; Some are still pretty sharp and others have grooves. My friend Joe is a shark tooth hunter savant. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-US6k_bAOV28/U_QgzKUd7cI/AAAAAAAADoE/R_YG9a6BaCI/s1600/teeth.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-US6k_bAOV28/U_QgzKUd7cI/AAAAAAAADoE/R_YG9a6BaCI/s1600/teeth.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></div><br />We also popped into an old peanut plantation. It was an interesting tour. The family that owned it was pro-union during the Civil War but had about 50 slaves. Here's an old peanut picker. Kind of looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uTzjze0cyAw/U_QgutQsQ7I/AAAAAAAADno/zbBeeBd3560/s1600/picker.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uTzjze0cyAw/U_QgutQsQ7I/AAAAAAAADno/zbBeeBd3560/s1600/picker.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />The plantation had a blacksmith shop too. Check out this huge bellow.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XS_uBI2JXTI/U_Qgr7X83_I/AAAAAAAADnM/u9htwTfmI_I/s1600/bellow.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XS_uBI2JXTI/U_Qgr7X83_I/AAAAAAAADnM/u9htwTfmI_I/s1600/bellow.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />One last look at the beach before heading north.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q3M0eeKeQiY/U_QgrU6yM-I/AAAAAAAADnE/vGvB8ePQMpY/s1600/beach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q3M0eeKeQiY/U_QgrU6yM-I/AAAAAAAADnE/vGvB8ePQMpY/s1600/beach.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />We spent the night in Newark, Delaware. In the morning, we headed to Citi Field for a Mets game. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-63M_4X5o4UQ/U_QgsNVt2YI/AAAAAAAADnQ/DNo2i6jah2E/s1600/citifield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-63M_4X5o4UQ/U_QgsNVt2YI/AAAAAAAADnQ/DNo2i6jah2E/s1600/citifield.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></div><br />I'm not a huge baseball fan, but if I'm picking a team, it's the Mets. And while they might be in a new stadium, not much has changed. It was a close game with the Mets down 1-0 for most of it. They rallied in the bottom of the 8th to tie it up. They bring in their closer while blasting Journey's Don't Stop Believin' - possibly the worst song to pump up the crowd. They cut the song off just before the "Some will win, some will lose, some are born to sing the blues" line. Here we go. First pitch...home run. Then they get the next 3 batters out. The Mets go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th with the last batter being called out on a check swing. What more could you want from a Mets game?<br /><br />It was a good time. I'd do it again. How's next week looking? http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/vacation-all-i-ever-wanted.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-2803937574860138696Tue, 29 Jul 2014 00:05:00 +00002014-07-28T20:05:40.597-04:00pizzaramblingsrestaurantsRoad FoodI'll have what he's havingLast week, I was on the road for work and spent a night in Syracuse. Harry, my road trip partner in crime, asked Alicia at the hotel check in desk, "Where is the best pizza in the area? Not necessary nearby. Anywhere in greater Syracuse. Where's the best?" She directed us to Nick's Tomato Pies and off we went.<br /><br />Unfortunately, Nick's Tomato Pies must be running some kind of summer hours because they were closed when we got there. Nick's is in the Armory Square section of Syracuse and there are quite a few dining options. I had heard someone else at the hotel talk about Pastabilities and after looking around a little bit, we decided to give it a shot. While sitting at the bar waiting for a table, Harry noticed a sign that said "Guy Ate Here." So after we were seated we talked about it with our waitress. Turns out, there was and episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives filmed here. Which is a little confusing because having looked around the place, it clearly isn't any of those things.<br /><br />After looking the menu over, we decided to try what Guy had. <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/guy-gets-spicy-hot-0199056.html" target="_blank">First up, their Spicy Hot Tomato Oil.</a> As soon as you order, you are brought a basket of house made bread and a plate that is thinly covered with tomato sauce. If you want bread and a big bowl of tomato sauce, that's $5. You can also buy this sauce in jars at the restaurant, online and I think they said Wegman's too. Guy gave the sauce and bread combination the Triple D rating, "That's Craaazzzy." The bread was good, warmed up would have been better but it was good. And the sauce is tasty too. Got a little sweet, a lot of fresh tomato flavor, a good amount of oil and a slow after burn of heat that isn't overwhelming, just nice. It's a good sauce but I think you could make something similar at home. When eating it, I thought they had used a chili oil, but after watching the video they used a chili paste. It kind of looks like the <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2012/11/the-elusive-secret-dipping-sauce-aka-sds-secret-no-more.html" target="_blank">Secret Dipping Sauce (SDS) that was going around on Serious Eats</a> awhile back.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/pizza-at-pastabilities-0199057.html" target="_blank">Next up was the Duck Bacon Pizza</a>. Here's the description:<br /><br />Pasta's Duck Bacon Flatbread Pizza $15<br />house-cured smoked duck bacon, Humboldt Fog aged goat cheese, mozzarella, tart cherries, shallots,<br />pomegranate drizzle, cracked black pepper, on our bakery fresh pizza dough<br /><br />Alas, no pictures. I tried to take one of this pizza and the flash went off like lightening in the middle of the restaurant. Then I tried to take some without the flash and it was too dark. But here's the photo-less pizza story. After we had each had a slice, our waitress stopped by to ask how we liked the pizza. We said it was good and I think she was a little offended. We were clearly supposed to have had our minds blown. To give credit where credit is due, the flavor combination of the toppings is absolutely inspired. The duck bacon (house cured and smoked duck breast) is something I will try to recreate in my kitchen someday. Who am I kidding, I'm going to try and copy the whole pizza some day. But when I copy it, I will only copy the toppings because that crust doesn't deserve to be in the same restaurant those those toppings. And if you watch the video you'll see why. At about 1:50 in the clip, they start to top a pre-made flat bread that goes into the oven for 12 minutes and then under a salamander to crisp up the top. Guy said, "The crust on this flat bread is righteous." While his looked better than ours, the crust was tough to chew and the bottom tasted like uncooked flour. I think their pizza dough is their bread from the first course pressed into an oval. It is better as bread. Guy goes on to say (of the toppings), "Funkalicious," "One of the best duck dishes I've ever had," and "You jackpot-ted on that one, girl." He's pretty much right. The duck pieces are fantastic and the flavors on top of that tough, hard to chew not-pizza bread are pretty spectacular. Sorry about that last dig on the crust.<br /><br />Moving on to the main dish: <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/wicked-chicken-riggies-0199058.html" target="_blank">Wicked Chicken Riggies</a>. I'm not sure why Syracuse sometimes seems to try and steal from Utica. Sure, my affection for Utica is unhealthy, but this almost seems like sibling rivalry. In the video, it is described as "an Upstate New York dish" but if Wikipedia can be trusted, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_riggies" target="_blank">first line of the Chicken Riggies entry</a> reads: <b>"Chicken riggies</b> or <b>Utica riggies</b> is an <span style="color: black;">Italian-American pasta dish native to the Utica-Rome area of New York State. It is a pasta-based dish usually consisting of chicken, rigatoni and hot or sweet peppers in a spicy cream and tomato sauce, although many variations exist." </span><br /><br />Anyhow, when Pastabilites says "Wicked," they aren't kidding. While those who are into spicy foods will enjoy this level of heat, I think it is more than the average person wants in an entree. It seemed a little to much for Harry, and he isn't a spice wimp. This version also had more cream than most versions I have had and all the spice was in the sauce - no chunks of pepper. While watching the sauce get prepared, Guy said it looked like "spicy tomato al Fredo" and that's a pretty good description of the sauce. After tasting it, Guy made a few guttural noises and then the cook said "Winner! Winner! Wicked Chicken Dinner!" and robbed of us of whatever bizarre combination of words Guy was about to share with us.<br /><br />So we had what Guy had. Some of what he said was right on, other things he said were just hype. If I ever returned to Pastabilities, I might give the pizza another chance but I'd go with a different entree. There are better Riggies out there. I'd start looking about 60 miles due east.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/ill-have-what-hes-having.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-5713628552208230393Wed, 09 Jul 2014 01:41:00 +00002014-07-08T21:41:23.263-04:00Running out of timeWhen the Hoffman's first announced that they were going to retire and were looking for someone to buy their amusement park, I thought for sure some local, incredibly wealthy benefactor with millions to spare would buy them out and continue to run the park as a long term land investment. This benefactor has millions to spare. As long as the park could support itself and break even, why not?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>2007 </b></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6L3Y45i-VSg/U7yYOvsRfKI/AAAAAAAADmw/sZbLrY0w3qs/s1600/2007.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6L3Y45i-VSg/U7yYOvsRfKI/AAAAAAAADmw/sZbLrY0w3qs/s1600/2007.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />It didn't happen. And while that didn't happen the lot next door began to get developed. Not sure who planned that, but I have no idea why it is so close to Route 9. Seriously, you should have pushed it back a bit. Looks like there will be a Bellini's (never been), Jimmy John's (never been or heard of), Burger 21 (also never been or heard of), and a Dunkin Donuts which in my mind is incredibly silly since you are already in a car and have either just foolishly driven past Bella Napoli or have about a quarter mile more to drive to enjoy a Bella Napoli doughnut.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>2008</b> </div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y2ZoFrUwaZg/U7yYOy7BlDI/AAAAAAAADmg/jMAPfrtWX_c/s1600/2008.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y2ZoFrUwaZg/U7yYOy7BlDI/AAAAAAAADmg/jMAPfrtWX_c/s1600/2008.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />During this same period of time when no benevolent multimillionaires stepped up to the plate (this is Albany after all, we know you're out there), I came up with a pipe dream that was just outside the realm of possiblity. I would win MegaMillions and take matters into my own hands. When Liz Bishop arrived to interview me and asked, "What are you going to do with the&nbsp; money?!?!" I would calmly answer:<br /><br />"I'm going to buy Hoffman's Playland."<br /><br />I wouldn't renew Subway's lease and I'd replace it with a small wood fired pizza place. You probably could have guessed that. But for the most part, I think I would try to freeze it in time. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>&nbsp;2009</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rxmDxrFXuMA/U7yYO_Xj2TI/AAAAAAAADmk/cLHL0TqUhpo/s1600/2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rxmDxrFXuMA/U7yYO_Xj2TI/AAAAAAAADmk/cLHL0TqUhpo/s1600/2009.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />We've got a lot more Hoffman's pictures but they reside on a different computer that currently isn't hooked up. My absolute favorite picture is of a friend's kid while she was making an angry face on kiddy boat ride. It is priceless and I look forward to showing it to her future husband in the receiving line at the wedding. Alas, time is running out on Hoffman's Playland. I don't have that many more chances to win the lottery and buy the place. <br /><br />But there's still some hope. I have tickets for tonight and tomorrow's drawings. And should you win Powerball this month, consider buying Hoffman's. I'll help you run the pizza joint.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/running-out-of-time.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-4508383420938854045Wed, 25 Jun 2014 02:44:00 +00002014-06-24T22:44:21.873-04:00IRS ScamEarlier in the week, I came home to an almost completely unintelligible voice mail. Originally, all I could get out of it was a menacing "Internal Revenue Service, the IRS" and after a few more listens there's a veiled threat to arrest me.<br /><br />Let's see if I can upload a video. Take a listen yourself:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-55edcab5fb09d501" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/get_player"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D55edcab5fb09d501%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1427564184%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source%26signature%3D3134FBD19F27989057A7B82F915EEB3DE310E63A.3BC786C022070EF47C87D3C9954FB7F4AC039DBA%26key%3Dck2&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D55edcab5fb09d501%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D71MjHAKISJoozy0fqim2kWfNa1k&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"><embed src="//www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="flvurl=http://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D55edcab5fb09d501%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1427564184%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source%26signature%3D3134FBD19F27989057A7B82F915EEB3DE310E63A.3BC786C022070EF47C87D3C9954FB7F4AC039DBA%26key%3Dck2&iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D55edcab5fb09d501%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D71MjHAKISJoozy0fqim2kWfNa1k&autoplay=0&ps=blogger" allowFullScreen="true" /></object></div><br />Here's my best shot at a transcript<br /><br />This message is intended for Jonathan $%^$.<br />Hi, Jonathan, my name is Rian Cruz. I'm calling you from Internal Revenue Service, The I!R!S! <i>-garble-</i> purpose of my call is to certify that we have receive a legal petition-autics against your name under your Social Security Number regarding a tax fraud. So before this matter goes to federal claims court house and you get arrested, kindly call us back on our number 202-719-0249. I repeat the number, 202-719-0249. Good bye.<br /><br />At first, you hear anything involving the IRS and you get a little wave of panic. But this message was just so over-the-top ridiculous. So I looked up IRS scam. Seems to be a <a href="http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Reiterates-Warning-of-Pervasive-Telephone-Scam" target="_blank">lot of this going on these days</a>. I also learned that the IRS's first contact with you will be in the mail. They may be intimidating, but they don't use "call us back immediately or you will be arrested" as an opening move. That's a little comforting.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/irs-scam.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-3114935591505647797Sat, 21 Jun 2014 04:16:00 +00002014-06-21T00:16:09.477-04:00The Spotted ZebraI going to bury the lead here and start with some history. After my wife's maternity leave was up, the kids went to a daycare center. As my oldest left the pre-k and headed off to kindergarten, we weren't as happy with the center as we were two years earlier. We found The Spotted Zebra and really liked the space and the staff seemed great. It's an integrated program meaning special needs kids and kids without special needs were in the same classroom. And I'm going to be honest, I had some concerns that this was a bad idea. Would my daughter be on track for kindergarten when she left? I was assured by her lead teacher that she would be ready to go in the fall, and she was clearly ready for school when she left. But it's not just that The Spotted Zebra got her ready for school, they were fantastic.<br /><br />Let me give you an example. My daughter went through an "I hate sunscreen" phase. She's a fair skinned redhead. She <i>needs</i> sunscreen. Since everybody brings in sunscreen for their kids, the teachers basically had some of every brand/type of sunscreen on the market. They set up kind of a sunscreen "tasting"for her and determined the brand of sunscreen that was the least offensive to her. That's the level of care The Spotted Zebra staff has for the kids they have been entrusted to teach. My daughter's time there was great and if you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, there's a 90% chance she'll tell you she wants to be a special needs teacher. Probably not the most common answer you get from an 8 year old.<br /><br />Onto the actual story: The Spotted Zebra just got bigger, moved to a new location and invited everyone with a connection to the school to the Grand Opening yesterday. It was a very nice opening complete with touching speeches and a very cute ribbon ribbon cutting which involved lots of kids and safety scissors.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zLdmLcj3OkA/U6UCMFraKhI/AAAAAAAADlo/AlmaSx-hP0k/s1600/20140619_182949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zLdmLcj3OkA/U6UCMFraKhI/AAAAAAAADlo/AlmaSx-hP0k/s1600/20140619_182949.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />The new space is huge compared to the old space. Plus, they've added a Bizzy Beez center which looks like it will be very well used. They've got a balance skills surfboard, new tactile centers, a wall with lit targets to hit with balls, a very cool exercise bike...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u_X6SJHhYuk/U6UC94Ms6sI/AAAAAAAADl0/1QhJ0_ALgpc/s1600/20140619_174801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u_X6SJHhYuk/U6UC94Ms6sI/AAAAAAAADl0/1QhJ0_ALgpc/s1600/20140619_174801.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5YzyC3Be4aI/U6UC9jRkK5I/AAAAAAAADlw/I2YgZvQGhKs/s1600/20140619_175353.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5YzyC3Be4aI/U6UC9jRkK5I/AAAAAAAADlw/I2YgZvQGhKs/s1600/20140619_175353.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_jhlt7TeY2c/U6UC94xfEWI/AAAAAAAADl4/7BJux7ept3w/s1600/20140619_175817.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_jhlt7TeY2c/U6UC94xfEWI/AAAAAAAADl4/7BJux7ept3w/s1600/20140619_175817.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />They also have a something that I could only describe as a calming room. If a kid is all worked up and needs to be away from it all for a few minutes, there's padded seats and lots of calming lights that are just relaxing. Here's me and Casey lying down on a a mat looking up at the lights and our reflection.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RoJsXCDiG9Q/U6UC-e4K98I/AAAAAAAADl8/zXNek9YSj40/s1600/20140619_180239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RoJsXCDiG9Q/U6UC-e4K98I/AAAAAAAADl8/zXNek9YSj40/s1600/20140619_180239.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div><br />To me, the biggest "tell" if something isn't quite right in a child care center is staff turnover. At the center we left, the director had changed a few times in a few years and staff seemed to be leaving and getting replaced fairly frequently. My daughter left The Spotted Zebra 3 years ago to go to kindergarten and I was surprised how many faces I remembered.<br /><br />So if you have a kid that needs a little extra attention or you are interested in an integrated program, you might want to check The Spotted Zebra out. Their new location is on Computer Drive East off of Wolf Road. The old school was a special place. The new school will be too.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.spottedzebra.org/" target="_blank">Here's a link to their website.</a><br /><br />And a confession: About 5 minutes after the doors opened, I dropped a cracker covered with artichoke dip on the floor. I cleaned it up pretty well, but I think I may have been the first person to spill something in the new school.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-spotted-zebra.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-1470063525141940403Tue, 10 Jun 2014 03:24:00 +00002014-06-09T23:28:48.860-04:00pizzaProduct ReviewTrenton Tomato Pie Tour<div class="MsoNormal">This Sunday, I put my lack of parenting skills on display by bringing two kids under the age of 10 on a one-day, 7+ hour car trip, for the sole purpose of gorging on pizza. At least with our earlier New Haven tour, the eating and driving were more spaced out making the experience seem less like child abuse. The kids were game for the trip and excited to go. I’m not sure if that is an argument for nature or nurture. <span class="GramE">Maybe both. </span>I had heard of the Trenton Tomato Pie but never had one before heading to New Jersey this weekend. There’s a thread on the style over at pizzamaking.com. One of these days I’ll get around to reading it. It will probably be a much more interesting read now that I have tasted the subject matter. Let's begin.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://albanyeats.net/" target="_blank">Albany Jane</a> picked us up around 8 in the morning and off we went. A little before noon we got to <a href="http://fussylittleblog.com/" target="_blank">Daniel</a>’s place in Princeton and hopped into his van. This daring group of pizza samplers included 3 "adults" - Daniel, Albany Jane and me, and 3 kids my daughters Allison and Casey along with Young Master Fussy. It was a short ride and by 12:15 we were at our first stop, <a href="http://www.gennarospizzeria.com/" target="_blank"><span class="SpellE">Gennaro’s</span></a>.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oaFMia1wyvU/U5Zwg5DP2qI/AAAAAAAADik/Az3fDDI3rVE/s1600/a1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oaFMia1wyvU/U5Zwg5DP2qI/AAAAAAAADik/Az3fDDI3rVE/s1600/a1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">After we ordered, I went to go take a look at the kitchen and told someone behind the counter we had just driven down to try Tomato Pies and he clearly thought I was nuts. But this little kitchen visit revealed a few secrets. A door with an Employees Only sign was open and I could see into a storeroom. I saw the brand(s) of tomatoes they use and the type of flour. I’m not sure they liked that, because after we sat back down out our table (which was in a nice outdoor patio), a few blinds were abruptly lowered. I’m probably being paranoid, because you couldn’t really see the kitchen through the windows anyway. But trade secrets are trade secrets and pizza shops have them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here’s what we were served at <span class="SpellE">Gennaro’s</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KUEXXjAcYVE/U5ZwhYNfzmI/AAAAAAAADi4/GrdJXkf1HAI/s1600/a2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KUEXXjAcYVE/U5ZwhYNfzmI/AAAAAAAADi4/GrdJXkf1HAI/s1600/a2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TfqbimYSpko/U5ZwhAGZaLI/AAAAAAAADio/OnX_dIH2-oE/s1600/a3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TfqbimYSpko/U5ZwhAGZaLI/AAAAAAAADio/OnX_dIH2-oE/s1600/a3.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2gLjrlUqVD4/U5Zwhk1-7jI/AAAAAAAADiw/xyVvjQ6Regg/s1600/a4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2gLjrlUqVD4/U5Zwhk1-7jI/AAAAAAAADiw/xyVvjQ6Regg/s1600/a4.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The pizza had a crisp crust and the tomato was delicious. I’m glad I know what tomatoes they use, but I don’t think knowing that is enough to make what they put on this pizza. Allison and Casey also liked this pizza. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Conveniently located next door was a <a href="http://fussylittleblog.com/2014/03/10/hello-halo/" target="_blank">Halo</a> ice cream bar. Daniel has mentioned Halo a few times on Twitter and <span class="SpellE">Facebook</span>and I was glad to be able to check it out. I should note that at this early and highly optimistic point in the day, we had delusions of buying several $2 pints of ice cream to share later in the day. Looking back at this moment with 20/20 hindsight makes that notion seem completely laughable. Allison went with a half scoop of cookie dough topped with a half scoop of cookies and cream. Casey selected a half scoop of M&amp;M and a half scoop of mint chocolate chip. I went with a half scoop of Tahitian vanilla. With tax, title and licensing fees that ice cream order came in at the low, low price $5.50. Compared to a recent stop at <span class="SpellE">Guptils</span> after a softball game, that’s practically free and the ice cream was significantly better. Living near one of these places is would be fattening and is probably frowned upon by most doctors.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Finished with the first stop on our pizza tour and refreshed on this warm Sunday afternoon with ice cream, we headed off to <a href="http://www.papastomatopies.com/" target="_blank">Papa’s</a>. I didn’t remember the name, but once I saw that they had a mustard pizza I remembered seeing this shop on the Cooking Channel show Pizza <span class="SpellE">Cuz</span>. A few photos of the television appearance on the wall confirmed my memory.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6cTCVkt-P-w/U5ZxerzOvtI/AAAAAAAADjQ/_KazdS7lB7g/s1600/b1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6cTCVkt-P-w/U5ZxerzOvtI/AAAAAAAADjQ/_KazdS7lB7g/s1600/b1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iZXf4ZGjo7k/U5Zxe1ZjKUI/AAAAAAAADjE/HjALOtKePtM/s1600/b2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iZXf4ZGjo7k/U5Zxe1ZjKUI/AAAAAAAADjE/HjALOtKePtM/s1600/b2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We ordered two pizzas – a tomato pie with half sausage and one of the mustard pies with half anchovy. There is a note on the menu saying the sausage goes on the pizza raw so the pizzas with sausage might look a little well done. Here’s what came to the table. The mustard pie</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rV-sK7jA80g/U5ZxfLL2LTI/AAAAAAAADjI/jjqYh3Cgz7A/s1600/b3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rV-sK7jA80g/U5ZxfLL2LTI/AAAAAAAADjI/jjqYh3Cgz7A/s1600/b3.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b7LXez0XV50/U5ZxfskZc-I/AAAAAAAADjc/mQX0Zi4zquY/s1600/b5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b7LXez0XV50/U5ZxfskZc-I/AAAAAAAADjc/mQX0Zi4zquY/s1600/b5.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />&nbsp;And the tomato pie with half sausage<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rhay4Qe9vNc/U5ZxfghCniI/AAAAAAAADjU/57tNtBJNT4E/s1600/b4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rhay4Qe9vNc/U5ZxfghCniI/AAAAAAAADjU/57tNtBJNT4E/s1600/b4.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QxbXn0WovrE/U5ZxgNG0nEI/AAAAAAAADjg/93ZpiUo5ZWI/s1600/b6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QxbXn0WovrE/U5ZxgNG0nEI/AAAAAAAADjg/93ZpiUo5ZWI/s1600/b6.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Once again, the tomato pie was good. I really liked the crust but thought the tomatoes on the <span class="SpellE">Gennaro</span> pie were better. The sausage was also very good. A coarse grind of pork and pork fat mixed with salt, pepper, and fennel. <span class="GramE">As sweet sausage should be.</span> I’m glad I tried the mustard pie, but I doubt I would do it again. At the very least, I wouldn’t order it again plain. I don’t know if anchovies are your thing, but it was a completely different pizza with the salt/flavor bomb that is an anchovy. Maybe the mustard flavor would go well with the sausage. Casey wanted no part of the mustard pizza and Allison took a bite of it before giving me the rest of her slice. Casey was just so-so on her slice of tomato pie and Allison enjoyed the sausage/tomato pie. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We were still feeling pretty good after two stops. Next up was<a href="http://www.corleone1270.com/index.html" target="_blank"> <span class="SpellE">Corleone’s</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TGNXc9VQt4c/U5ZyxbEQNrI/AAAAAAAADkM/IRPZEuroHZM/s1600/c1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TGNXc9VQt4c/U5ZyxbEQNrI/AAAAAAAADkM/IRPZEuroHZM/s1600/c1.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here, we ordered a cheese pizza, a tomato pie and a deep fried calzone. My only experience with a deep fried calzone was at Pizza Town, USA. There, they only deep fry the small calzone. That calzone will fit in your cupped hands. This calzone, also a small, was more football sized.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0IfoJRxRqHc/U5ZyyNfQOCI/AAAAAAAADkY/tm5masByblg/s1600/c4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0IfoJRxRqHc/U5ZyyNfQOCI/AAAAAAAADkY/tm5masByblg/s1600/c4.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span class="GramE">I only ate a small piece of it.</span> The dough had a nice flavor but I thought the filling was over the top. There had to be a pound of ricotta in there. Here's the Corleone's cheese pizza<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mpgYUIGPpaA/U5ZywhdIPAI/AAAAAAAADj8/UkQJpKt49Js/s1600/c2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mpgYUIGPpaA/U5ZywhdIPAI/AAAAAAAADj8/UkQJpKt49Js/s1600/c2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X0QmS-3ucIQ/U5ZywYUUREI/AAAAAAAADj4/cD-zXpHQVTY/s1600/c3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X0QmS-3ucIQ/U5ZywYUUREI/AAAAAAAADj4/cD-zXpHQVTY/s1600/c3.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />And the tomato pie <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kz6zKU6rZZk/U5ZyxXLsPPI/AAAAAAAADkI/qaxID-Dtpck/s1600/c5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kz6zKU6rZZk/U5ZyxXLsPPI/AAAAAAAADkI/qaxID-Dtpck/s1600/c5.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5l0kvbb3yuo/U5Zyx86NxZI/AAAAAAAADkQ/kn3Jd0slVws/s1600/c6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5l0kvbb3yuo/U5Zyx86NxZI/AAAAAAAADkQ/kn3Jd0slVws/s1600/c6.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />The crust was just so-so here. It looked like the center of the pizza had been stretched too thin. I thought the tomato pie was <i>much</i> better than the cheese pizza but neither was better than the earlier two stops. <br /><br />Maybe it was the two pizzas or maybe it was the deep fried calzone but as we were leaving <span class="SpellE">Corleone’s</span> I could have happily gone to sleep for the rest of the afternoon. The plan was to visit two more pizza shops. There’s no way that was going to happen without a break. Daniel knew of an ice place not too far from the next stop across the bridge in Pennsylvania. Off we went to the <a href="http://www.yardleyicehouse.com/" target="_blank">Yardley Ice House.</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7N-xaBc1MfI/U5ZzvB5r1FI/AAAAAAAADko/aslJKbtGvfE/s1600/20140608_154754.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7N-xaBc1MfI/U5ZzvB5r1FI/AAAAAAAADko/aslJKbtGvfE/s1600/20140608_154754.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jaPbpoHVo7U/U5ZzvPmuARI/AAAAAAAADks/PwsxJQvs6bc/s1600/20140608_154806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jaPbpoHVo7U/U5ZzvPmuARI/AAAAAAAADks/PwsxJQvs6bc/s1600/20140608_154806.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />The "water ice" (not sure how it got the name) was refreshing - I went with strawberry lemonade, Casey chose cookies &amp; cream, Allison picked mint chocolate chip – and we took a little walk around the town. I’m not sure if it was Allison or Casey, but one of them spotted a little park so we headed in that direction. The three kids climbed around and when we got back to the van, eating more pizza was was suddenly feasible. We headed off to <a href="http://lavilla-restaurant.com/" target="_blank">La Villa</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="_blank"></a>. <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Earlier in the day I had joked that we were going to go to a Pizza Hut. I’m not sure if she has ever been, but Casey hates Pizza Hut. I let her know that I was just kidding and all was well. But it turns out that La Villa is in a building that clearly was once a Pizza Hut. The only outside shot has a woman I've never met with a weird expression on her face. I'll spare her the online picture. Think Pizza Hut building in the middle of a parking lot. We ordered a large tomato pie.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dWoqBsnC0gI/U5Z3dkGDZ_I/AAAAAAAADk8/tBScq19EOkk/s1600/d2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dWoqBsnC0gI/U5Z3dkGDZ_I/AAAAAAAADk8/tBScq19EOkk/s1600/d2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5BYZ3k2w6SM/U5Z3dvSuyEI/AAAAAAAADlA/ZxptOxYUBgM/s1600/d3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5BYZ3k2w6SM/U5Z3dvSuyEI/AAAAAAAADlA/ZxptOxYUBgM/s1600/d3.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />This was the only pie of the day that was square. The first thing you taste when you bite into the pizza is garlic. Not that garlic is bad, but a tomato pie is meant to showcase the tomato and there was a lot of garlic. I didn’t really care for the crust here. I thought it was a little tough. It was the kind of pizza that you had to bite into and then tear the crust with a little bit of pull. To me, the chew on the crust and garlic knocked this down to the bottom of the list of tomato pies although I would probably come back here before returning to <span class="SpellE">Corleone’s</span>. Allison gave it an “eh” but Casey really liked it. I think she ate two slices.<br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We didn’t make it to <a href="http://www.delorenzostomatopies.com/" target="_blank"><span class="SpellE">De Lorenzo’s</span></a>, a well known Trenton Tomato Pie institution. Personally, I blame them for not making the list. If they had opened before 4 on Sundays it would have been much easier to get there and see what they had. From what we ate, I think the best pizza would be a Franken-pizza combining the crust from Papa’s and tomatoes from <span class="SpellE">Gennaro’s</span>. But that is probably outside the realm of possibility. One can dream. Here’s the day’s breakdown:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Time Spent on a Pizza Quest: 6 hours of pizza touring</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Number of Pizzas Ordered: 6 pies</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Side Dishes: ice cream, water ice, fried calzone</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><u>Favorite Pies of the Day</u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Casey - Villa Rosa</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Allison - <span class="SpellE">Gennaro’s</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Jon in Albany - <span class="SpellE">Gennaro’s</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Albany Jane - Tie between <span class="SpellE">Gennaro’s</span>and Papa’s w/anchovy</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Daniel - Papa’s Sausage </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Young Master Fussy - Doesn’t like pizza and would prefer to go eat soup dumplings</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Acknowledgements: I’d like to thank Albany Jane and the <span class="SpellE">Profussor</span> (Daniel) for inviting us on this tour. We he had a lot of fun. The girls very excitedly recalled the trip to their mother tonight at dinner. I’d also like to thank the creators of the Nintendo DS and Mario Versus for making long car trips like this possible.</div>http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/trenton-tomato-pie-tour.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989376878473705758.post-3380057791631097428Sat, 07 Jun 2014 04:16:00 +00002014-06-07T00:16:36.185-04:00Product Reviewsuper marketsMarket Bistro's Cooking SchoolI was invited to attend a cooking class at the new cooking school inside the the revamped Market Bistro Price Chopper in Latham. The cooking school is right behind the full service restaurant near the front of the new food court area. I had my doubts about how successful this full service restaurant would be when <a href="http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/market-bistro-by-price-chopper.html" target="_blank">I toured the new Bistro section of store when it opened</a>. There were several tables of diners and while I didn't eat any of the restaurant's offerings the plates of food being served looked pretty damn good. <br /><br />On to the cooking school... I was invited to a 90 minute class titled Two Guys and a Grill with a focus on Certified Angus Beef. The school kitchen is pretty sweet. There are three islands that hold up to 5 students each for the hands on classes. There are also long tables for more of a lecture style class.Here's a picture I took from the second row. You can see the three islands and a pretty slick kitchen setup. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JEqxHcff4J8/U5J-Q3iznFI/AAAAAAAADhY/ZuQ0rXVeFCg/s1600/pic+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JEqxHcff4J8/U5J-Q3iznFI/AAAAAAAADhY/ZuQ0rXVeFCg/s1600/pic+1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />There's a camera on the back wall that projects onto the two screens for close ups of the lessons.<br />&nbsp; <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-thpHNFBlqO0/U5J-Qso89UI/AAAAAAAADhg/tKXMhuAO7J4/s1600/pic+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-thpHNFBlqO0/U5J-Qso89UI/AAAAAAAADhg/tKXMhuAO7J4/s1600/pic+2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vs-algd6rO0/U5J-Q0g7uCI/AAAAAAAADhc/XKpS54P4mSs/s1600/pic+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>The beef was cooked by Chef Michael Ollier (from the Certified Angus Beef organization) and the side dishes were prepared the the cooking school's Chef John Winneck. First up was a top round London broil. This was marinated in a Central Market Marinade named Neil's Favorite Marinade, apparently Neil Golub likes it. These steaks got an overnight soak in the marinade, a sear on the stove-top grill, and then a bake in a 225 degree(F) convection oven.<br /><br />Then a sweet corn souffle was prepared. During this preparation, each chef offered their opinion as to why eggs should be separated cold - Chef Winneck says the albumen doesn't stick to the yolks as much and Chef Ollier says the yolks are firmer and less fragile. News to me, and that's the kind of thing I like about cooking classes. Just some spontaneous, off-topic pro tip. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--UMQU2_aRrQ/U5KASLxjKpI/AAAAAAAADiE/Y0MAUy-nftI/s1600/one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--UMQU2_aRrQ/U5KASLxjKpI/AAAAAAAADiE/Y0MAUy-nftI/s1600/one.jpg" height="322" width="400" /></a></div><br />The souffle was had an interesting texture. The bottom turned into a corn spoon bread and the top was a soft egg. The beef was thinly sliced and still had a nice chew to it. I thought the marinade had a nice flavor but was a little sweet for my tastes. I gave the marinade bottle a quick look and MSG and high fructose corn syrup were on the ingredient list. Neil and I differ in opinion here. I don't think the marinade needs either but that's a matter of personal taste.<br /><br />The next up was a petite sirloin seasoned with Central Market's Quebec seasoning, some bacon caramelized Brussels sprouts, and a twice baked potato gratin. The Quebec seasoning looked to be a Central Market riff on Montreal seasoning. Here's the petite sirloin and potato gratin.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oa33I3aq4UI/U5KAScJqEdI/AAAAAAAADiI/F4cgCu5x4W4/s1600/two.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oa33I3aq4UI/U5KAScJqEdI/AAAAAAAADiI/F4cgCu5x4W4/s1600/two.jpg" height="306" width="400" /></a></div><br />Both were good. I'm a food snob, so I'll nitpick a little - I forgot to look at the ingredient list on the Quebec seasoning. It had mostly a coarse cracked pepper flavor and none of the garlic, onion or mild heat that I associate with Montreal seasoning. But in fairness, it wasn't advertised as Montreal seasoning. I really liked the flavors of the potatoes, but if I were to make the recipe at home, I think I would make mashed potatoes and then just stir in everything else. Again, a personal preference...and a completely different recipe. <br /><br />Then some trimmed up New York strip steaks were grilled. It looked like all they got was some salt and pepper, which I would argue is all a good strip steak needs. You could probably even skip the pepper. The steaks were grilled and served with the caramelized Brussels sprouts and a chimichurri sauce.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7O9mW2sze9U/U5KASSWJPTI/AAAAAAAADiM/BaWt3DFWlVI/s1600/three.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7O9mW2sze9U/U5KASSWJPTI/AAAAAAAADiM/BaWt3DFWlVI/s1600/three.jpg" height="308" width="400" /></a></div><br />I liked everything on this plate. I was also impresses with the amount of char Chef Ollier was able to get on the steaks while maximizing the amount of medium rare in the steak with what looked like and over sized grill pan. Again, some more personal preference, I'd probably skip the chimichurri sauce with a strip steak. A good, properly grilled strip steak doesn't need dressing up.<br /><br />Everyone in the class was given a folder with all of the recipes and a shoppping list for the menu. Some of the items on the shopping list don't exactly match the recipe (I'm nitpicking again), like apple wood smoked bacon on the grocery list and Hatfield bacon in the recipe, but I'm being a jerk here. Although on the comment form, I mentioned that there was a lot of product placement in the recipes. Several Price Chopper brands were called out, the Hatfield bacon, some Cabot cheese, Eggland's Best.This class listed for $40. Most of the other evening cooking classes run longer and seem look to cost $55. I'm sure prices will vary by course.<br /><br />My favorite part of my time in the cooking school was the discussion about what qualifies to be Certified Angus Beef. It starts with genetics, the steer needs to be Angus. Then it comes down to marbling which is determined after the animal is slaughtered. One in four Angus has the proper marbling to be Certified Angus Beef. I had to ask, if you are packing large cuts to be broken down in the store, how do you know what the marbling is going to be like?&nbsp; A cut is made between the 12th and 13th rib, which is the cut made to quarter the side of beef, and the view of the prime rib is used to make the marbling decision. They've even done studies to make sure that view is an accurate insight to the rest of the cuts on that side of beef. Who knew?<br /><br />Certified Angus Beef was my go to beef before I got mixed up in raising our own so I used to eat it all the time. This was probably the most beef I have eaten that wasn't ours in over two years. The beef was good...I like ours better. But I'm biased.<br /><br />Back to the cooking school, they are planning to do quite a bit of teaching there. The schedule is available<a href="https://www.marketbistro.com/CookingSchool/Class/UpcomingClass" target="_blank"> here</a>. They do private events - got 10 people that want a class in something, that can be arranged. They also do some kid classes and it sounds like they had their hands full with a Frozen themed class.&nbsp; The kids classes are going to broken up by ages, 5-to-8 and 9-and-up. The staff was very friendly and Cooking School Chef John Winnek is a capable teacher. Not everyone that can cook can teach. He can.<br /><br />Full Disclosure: Besides being plied with beef, I was given a Certified Angus Beef gift bag. I don't know if that's a standard practice at all the classes. I know some local programs either send you home with food or have an in-store discount after the class. Anyhow, the gift bag contained an instant read thermometer, a spice rub, little pad &amp; pen, a chip clip, a little meat guide that you can probably pick up at the meat counter and a coupon. I'm keeping the stuff this time because I'd like to try the spice rub and my mother-in-law needs an instant thermometer. So, it's hers. The kids will do something with the rest.http://joninalbanyblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/market-bistros-cooking-school.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany)2